In this week’s Economist/YouGov poll:

Plus polling on foreign policy, the military, paying bills, Trump's arch, and more. Including:

  • 54% of Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling foreign policy, while only 36% approve, for a net approval of -18 — the lowest recorded in Economist / YouGov Polls during Trump's second term
    • 39% of Americans say that Trump focuses too much on foreign policy. Only 8% say he focuses on it too little
  • 52% of Americans say that America's standing in the world has worsened since Trump took office in 2025. 28% say it has improved
  • Americans are evenly split between saying the U.S. has a responsibility to actively promote democracy around the world and saying it does not (38% vs. 38%)
    • Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the U.S. has such a responsibility (47% vs. 40%). Independents are much less likely to say this (29%)
    • In March, 36% of Americans said the U.S. has a responsibility to promote democracy and 41% said it does not. Democrats were slightly less likely than Republicans to say the U.S. had such a responsibility (40% vs. 44%)
  • 37% of Americans say that the U.S. military is the strongest in the world. 33% say it is among the strongest
    • 54% of Republicans say that the U.S. military is the strongest in the world, but only 26% of Democrats and 30% of Independents say the same
  • 47% of Americans say that gas prices where they live are going up a lot. That's down a bit from last week, when 55% said they were going up a lot. But only 12% of Americans say gas prices are going down a little or a lot
  • 42% of Americans say they will definitely have enough money to pay this month's bills. 14% say they probably or definitely will not
  • 54% of Americans oppose a proposal from Donald Trump to build a 250-foot monument called the United States Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C. Only 26% of Americans favor it

See the toplines and crosstabs for the April 17 - 20, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,707 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, geographic region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.

Image: Getty (Antonio Masiello / Stringer)

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