How did President Donald Trump do during his first 100 days (and counting) in office? By and large, American voters are sharply split, with Republicans strongly positive on Trump’s leadership, while both Democrats and independents remain mostly skeptical, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

Regarding presidential leadership, U.S. voters were asked: “Overall, is your opinion of Donald Trump generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”

The online national poll, taken from April 30-May 2 by 1,400 adults, provided a muddled answer: Overall, 44% assessed Trump’s presidential performance as “favorable,” while 46% described it as “unfavorable.”

With a +/-2.7 percentage point margin of error, that’s a statistical toss-up. And only 7% answered “not familiar enough to say,” while an even-smaller 3% margin said they were not sure

However, the picture becomes clearer after focusing on partisan reactions to Trump: Democrats (17% favorable, 75% unfavorable) and independents (31% favorable, 53% unfavorable) were much more negative on Trump’s leadership than Republicans (80% favorable, 13% unfavorable), who gave Trump an enthusiastic thumbs up.

I&I/TIPP asks yet one other question to sort out how voters view Trump’s overall performance so far: “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”

And once again, the overall answer tilts toward the negative, with 42% approving, 47% disapproving, 7% “not familiar enough to say,” and 4% “not sure.”

The partisan breakdown didn’t change much, either. Democrats (17% approve, 76% disapprove) and independents (33% approve, 54% disapprove) once again weren’t impressed. But Republicans (76% approve, 14% disapprove) were.

There were significant differences with regard to age.

Prime-working-age millennials (those aged 25-44) were most solidly pro-Trump, giving him both solid favorability (49% favorable, 37% unfavorable) and approval (49% approve, 39% disapprove) ratings.

Least happy? Retirement-age baby-boomers, who were strongly negative on both favorability (40% favorable, 55% unfavorable) and approval (38% approve, 56% disapprove).

Race? Whites (48% favorable, 43% unfavorable; 46% approve, 44% disapprove) were more positive about Trump than either black voters (30% favorable, 56% unfavorable; 32% approval, 54% disapproval) or Hispanics (40% favorable; 41% unfavorable; 40% approve, 45 disapprove).

If there’s a surprise, it’s that Trump does as well as he does with minority voters, outperforming expectations based on minority party preference: Roughly 83% of all black voters are Democrats or lean that way; 61% of Hispanics are also Democrats, or lean Dem.

One other significant gap exists, the one between male and female voters. Males (52% favorable, 40% unfavorable; 51% approve, 45% disapprove) show a fundamentally different view on Trump than females (36% favorable, 51% unfavorable; 34% approve, 52% disapprove).

I&I/TIPP also asked about leadership, namely: “How would you describe the LEADERSHIP that President Trump is providing for the country?”

On this question, results were more favorable for Trump. Among those taking the poll, 58% agreed that Trump’s leadership had been either “very strong” (27%) or “strong” (15%), for a total of 42%. Another 16% described Trumpian leadership as “moderate”.

Overall, 35% painted Trump’s leadership as “very weak” (28%) or “weak” (7%), while 16% portrayed his leadership as “moderate.”

But as is usually found, partisanship was powerfully evident in the answers. For instance, just 17% of Democrats termed Trump’s leadership as strong, while 65% called him weak.

Independents were a bit more generous, granting Trump a 32% strong score, with 21% saying his leadership was “moderate.” But 38% described him as weak.

Republicans? Trump receives 76% “strong” leadership scores, versus just 14% for “moderate” and 7% for “weak.”

Finally, what about the issues? Namely, the big ones everyone talks about? What school-style grades does Trump get from voters for handling different issues?

Overall, 41% of all voters give Trump an “A” or a “B” grade for his performance so far. On the important issue of immigration, 47% give him good grades.

But just 15% of Dems and 33% of indie voters give Trump an “A” or “B,” while 74% of Republicans give him the highest grades.

If Trump’s first term is any guide, Americans could be in for four years of sharp policy disagreements, political chicanery, and possibly even violent demonstrations.

With just over 100 days in office, Trump has been a whirlwind of action, shutting U.S. borders to illegal immigrants within months and sending criminals back to their homelands; refocusing the U.S. tax code on tariffs, not income; attacking budget bloat and bureaucratic inefficiency through DOGE; rooting out billions in dollars given to questionable leftist non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and so much more.

The list is a long one.

So why aren’t Democrats and independents at least grudgingly giving Trump credit for attacking problems long recognized, but never acted upon, by more tepid politicians and presidents?

Is it perhaps largely the fault of a biased media?

The conservative-leaning Media Research Center looked at 899 stories run by ABC, CBS, and NBC in the first 100 days of Biden in 2021 and Trump in 2025.

“So far this year, the new Trump administration has faced a withering 92% negative coverage from ABC, CBS, and NBC, whose flagship news programs averaged more than 19.3 million viewers during the first quarter of 2025, making them the most widely-watched news programs in the country,” MRC noted.

By comparison, President Biden’s first months in office received 59% positive coverage by the same networks.

Whether you agree or not with every policy prescription he’s put forward, Trump has been unusually aggressive in keeping his policy promises, knowing full well this is his final four-year term. He’s focused on enacting a sweeping agenda as no other post-WWII president has.

“Despite the media hysteria, President Donald Trump’s counterrevolution remains on course,” noted historian Victor Davis Hanson, remarking on the 47th president’s long list of accomplishments in his first three months.

“Its ultimate fate will probably rest with the state of the economy by the November 2026 midterm elections. But its success also hinges on accomplishing what is right and long overdue — and then making such reforms quietly, compassionately, and methodically.”

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.