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As Donald Trump prepares to once again assume the office of the presidency, a new 

 finds that, despite his claims of an "unprecedented and powerful mandate," Trump may have to be careful about how far he decides to go with what he wants to do.

More people hold an unfavorable than favorable view of him, most are against pardoning those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and they're split on whether to mass deport immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal status.

Perhaps most importantly, Americans have high expectations that their personal financial situations will improve under Trump, but more think tariffs will hurt rather than help the economy.

Trump has promised bold action, but, as the NPR poll shows, the politics may be tricky. Presidents often become vulnerable because of overreach. They tend to believe — falsely — that because they were elected, they have a mandate for everything on their agenda. Clearly, that's not the case.

“The opening round of the second term is not going well with the public,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey of 1,387 adults. “Americans are not convinced of Trump's agenda pillars, including pardons and tariffs. Mass deportations are only getting mixed reviews.”

The core of why Trump got another term was negative feelings about the economy. Voters said throughout the campaign that their top concern was inflation, specifically prices. But bringing down prices, Trump said after the election, will likely be "

" despite his promises to fix the economy.

President Biden and his campaign successor, Vice President Harris, suffered politically because of inflation, and the poll provides a grim view of Biden's presidency. Just 42 percent approve of the job he's doing in this final survey of his presidency, and a slim majority said as a president, he will go down as below average or worse.

It's a warning sign for Trump, too, that the economy can make or break a presidency, and leading up to his second inauguration, he has garnered more attention for his designs on Greenland, potentially annexing Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal Zone and renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," rather than serious plans for the economy.

The survey was conducted Jan. 7-9 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points, so results could be about 3 points lower or higher. It used multiple approaches to reach respondents, including by cellphone, landline, text and online in both English and Spanish.

Views of Trump remain more negative than positive

For most presidents, it doesn't get much better than their early days in office when it comes to how Americans view them.

But Trump starts with a net-negative favorability rating, 44 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable. Since Marist started asking about Trump's favorability in 2016, he has never had a net-positive rating, but there does appear to be a small percentage withholding judgment for now, as the 49 percent unfavorable view is tied for the least-negative rating for him.

There is a sharp gender divide on how Trump is viewed — 53 percent of men have a positive view of him, while just 35 percent of women do.

Trump was viewed best by white evangelical Christians (69 percent), white men without college degrees (65 percent) and those who live in rural areas (57 percent).

Those with the least positive feelings toward the incoming president include white women with college degrees (29 percent), women who live in small cities or suburban areas (34 percent) and people who live in big cities (36 percent).

Just 41 percent of Latinos had a positive view of Trump. The sample size in the polling means there's a high margin of error with subgroups like this, but it's an important number to watch across multiple surveys, considering the record share of Latinos Trump won in the 2024 election.

It also raises the stakes for Trump and Republicans when it comes to the importance of improving feelings about the economy in the coming years.

Some Trump priorities have mixed support, at best

From pardons for people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, to mass deporting migrants, to tariffs on other countries, Americans either disagree with Trump or are split on whether they are good ideas.

When it comes to Jan. 6, days after the four-year anniversary of the siege, 59 percent said it was an insurrection to overthrow a free and fair election, as opposed to a protest by patriots to stop a stolen election. Among Republicans, however, 61 percent think it was a protest by patriots.

A significant majority — 62 percent — said they would not approve if Trump pardoned people who were convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6. Vice president-elect JD Vance said Sunday that 

people who “committed violence” should not be pardoned

; Trump has been less clear about how he might discern between "peaceful protesters" and those who acted violently that day. (

See NPR's database of those who have been charged here

Support for some Trump priorities is lacking

Trump received better marks than Harris or Biden on who people trusted more on immigration ahead of the election, but when asked specifically about mass deportation of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, reviews were mixed — 49 percent supported it, 49 percent opposed.

But showing why this has been such a salient issue for Trump's campaign, not only did almost 8-in-10 Republicans support mass deportation, 53 percent of Republicans 

Only a quarter of Democrats support the proposal, and independents are evenly split.

On the economy, almost 6-in-10 said they think the economy is not working well for them personally, including 73 percent of Republicans. Pre-pandemic, two-thirds of those surveyed said they thought the economy was working well for them.

Feelings of nostalgia for the pre-pandemic economy could be a big factor in why Trump won in November and why 44 percent in this survey said they expect their family finances to get better in the coming year compared to just 22 percent who said they think it will get worse.

That 44 percent is the most optimistic respondents have been about their near-future personal financial situation since Marist has been asking the question in the last 15 years.

Republicans (63 percent) were the most likely to have confidence that their financial situation would get better, not surprising considering how partisan views of the economy have been.

But when it comes to tariffs or fees on products imported from other countries, something Trump has promoted as potentially solving lots of economic issues, respondents, by a 48 percent-31 percent margin, were more likely to say tariffs would hurt the economy than help.

There are a raft of confirmation hearings this week for several Trump Cabinet nominees, 

, a Fox News personality whom Trump has nominated for defense secretary. Hegseth sat for his one and only day of questioning on Tuesday.

More than half of people (55 percent) said they don't have an opinion or are unsure of their view of him. Just 19 percent had a favorable opinion, while 26 percent had an unfavorable one.

In general, do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of _______?

Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Kennedy, had a net-positive rating, 40 percent-37 percent with 23 percent unsure. He actually had the highest net-rating — and the only one that was net-positive of those asked about, including Trump, Hegseth, secretary of state nominee Sen. Marco Rubio and adviser Elon Musk.

Rubio, who has had a checkered history with Trump but got in his good graces in recent years, was 25 percent positive, 34 percent negative.

Musk is the world's richest man and donated more than $250 million to Trump's reelection effort. He's tasked with 

an outside advisory effort to identify governmental waste

. Just 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the Tesla and SpaceX chief, who also owns the social media platform X. Forty-six percent have a negative view of him.

In addition to his middling final approval rating of 42 percent approve, 50 percent disapprove, Biden was also seen by 53 percent as likely to go down as either a below average (19 percent) or one of the worst presidents (34 percent).

Just 19 percent said he would be above average or one of the best. More than a quarter said he would be seen as average. Even among Democrats, just 44 percent said he would be remembered as at least above average.

Combining average or better, 47 percent said Biden would be seen as at least average. That's higher than Trump when he left office the first time in January 2021, when just 37 percent said so.

But both were far lower than for former President Barack Obama when more than two-thirds — 68 percent — said he would be remembered as at least average and 40 percent said he would be seen as at least above average.

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Domenico Montanaro

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A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows that Americans' support for President-elect Donald Trump's top priorities is split, despite his claims of a mandate for his agenda.

Trump will begin his presidency in delicate position, poll finds

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