Over the past week, CNN has rolled out a series of poll findings on where Americans stand on his performance so far. ‘Too far’ is the unifying theme of Trump’s first termIf there’s a two-word phrase that captures the first year of Trump’s second term, that’s it. But this poll suggests something even more ominous for Trump: They don’t think he’s particularly good at it. The CNN poll has asked repeatedly in recent years whether Americans think Trump is “an effective world leader.”Americans were about evenly split on that question in 2023. That’s a decent margin, but it could arguably be bigger given Trump’s problems.

Source: CNN January 19, 2026 20:05 UTC