‘Was hoping for more’: Support for Trump slips one year in

DOYLESTOWN, United States – Ms Michelle Sims hesitated when asked if she still backed US President Donald Trump one year into his presidency.

“Yeah – to a certain extent,” she sighed as she eyed groceries in a Pennsylvania food bank.

Ms Sims, who does not work due to medical issues, went on to list her worries about the high cost of living and cuts to welfare programmes – problems that she had hoped Mr Trump would improve.

The 50-year-old is one of many Americans whose support for Mr Trump has waned since he took office in January 2025, as opinion polls show a slump in the President’s approval rating
.

Ms Sims told AFP she had particularly wanted Mr Trump to deliver on his promises to address affordability issues.

But while she is happy to see petrol prices down, she does not “think everything was achieved”.

“My expectations were a little bit higher. I was hoping more would have been done by now,” said Ms Sims.

She lives in a suburb of Philadelphia in Bucks County, an area that politicians often target in US elections as voters “swing” between candidates, rather than consistently backing the same party.

Mr Trump won there in 2024 by a tiny margin – the first time since 1988 a Republican presidential candidate has taken Bucks County.

But in a sign of shifting sentiment, a wave of Democratic candidates swept the county in 2025 local elections.

“People just want government to work. They do not want chaos,” Mr Danny Ceisler, the newly elected Democratic sheriff of Bucks County, told AFP.

Mr Ceisler successfully lobbied against his officers partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the immigration enforcement agency leading Mr Trump’s mass deportation drive – a key and contentious pillar of his presidency.

Satisfied, but Greenland plan ‘ridiculous’

Analysts say that lukewarm support for Mr Trump in the first place means some who voted for him have sat out of recent elections in Pennsylvania and other states, where the Democrats have also enjoyed major electoral victories.

“In 2024, his narrow winning margin was enabled by a fairly modest-sized cohort of voters in places like Bucks County who were dissatisfied with the direction of the country, particularly on the cost of living,” said Dr Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Pennsylvania.

He added: “That group of voters has become disillusioned with Trump, with their hopes for a more affordable life largely unrealised and their reservations about Trump’s character and leadership only enhanced.”

A Gallup poll in December 2025 showed Mr Trump’s approval rating at 36 per cent, down from 47 per cent when he took office.

Faced with a drop in popularity ahead of crucial 2026 midterm elections, which will decide who controls Congress, the President has returned to campaign-style rallies to engage voters.

Mr Joe Kramley, a retired navy technician who voted for Mr Trump in 2024 mostly due to immigration worries, said he was getting fed up with the President.

“I wish he would shut up and (just) do what he is going to do,” Mr Kramley, 83, told AFP in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on a historic street lined with shops and cafes.

“I am satisfied with some of his programmes. A lot of them are not working out. Inflation is still here,” he said, also calling Mr Trump’s repeated remarks that he wants to take over Greenland
“ridiculous”.

Asked if he would vote for Mr Trump again given the chance, Mr Kramley said it “depends on who is running” – but he sees no viable Democratic presidential candidate.

At a diner on the outskirts of Doylestown, views were similarly mixed.

“It is not so much that I like Trump. I like the decisions he is making and direction of the country,” said Mr Gary Armstrong, an insurance salesman and self-described conservative.

The 68-year-old said he was “very happy” with his vote for Mr Trump “over what I see on the far left side”. AFP