Trump rides high in polls as early actions prove popular with voters

Voters are giving President Trump strong marks for many of his early executive actions — particularly those aimed at reversing his predecessor and gaining control of the border.

Strong majorities back Mr. Trump’s border emergency declaration and his decision to send military troops to help secure the boundary with Mexico.

The new president’s efforts to put a cork in the woke agenda are also popular, as are his attempts to get federal workers back into the office.

There are some warning signs for Mr. Trump’s more aggressive ideas, such as trying to take control of Greenland.

But with roughly two weeks in the books, Mr. Trump is enjoying a strong start and seemingly a longer leash from voters than he had to begin his previous term.

The upshot is that Mr. Trump’s job approval hovers at, or just below, 50% in a series of new polls that indicate he’s on substantially better ground than his first go-around in 2017.

Some 57% support his border emergency declaration in a new Morning Consult survey, compared to 32% opposed — making it a net 25-point positive proposition. And deploying troops is a 24-point winner in the latest Quinnipiac University Poll.

“The huge deployment of boots on the ground is not to a dicey, far away war theater, but to the American border. And a majority of voters are just fine with that,” said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac.

That will come as no surprise to Mr. Trump, who made the border a marque campaign issue and sees it as crucial to his November election win.

“I believe it’s the single biggest reason,” he said as he signed the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday.

Voters are also generally behind Mr. Trump as he tries to reverse four years of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

His order blocking the federal government from recognizing sex transitions is a 20-point net positive, and ending affirmative action in federal hiring a 10-point favorite in the Morning Consult survey.

And Mr. Trump’s directive to get federal workers back to the office was a winner in polling done by The Economist/YouGov and Morning Consult.

The public has even warmed to Mr. Trump’s idea of mass deportations.

YouGov’s poll found 50% of voters are ready to deport “millions” of illegal immigrants.

Quinnipiac found that 44% supported deporting all “undocumented immigrants” and even those in opposition were heavily in support of ousting ones convicted of violent crimes. Just 6% opposed deportations in general.

Skepticism begins to creep in with Trump moves like slapping tariffs on imports, which ended up 6 points in the negative column in Quinnipiac’s poll.

And the polling suggested Mr. Trump needs to tread carefully with some of his future plans.

Voters were decidedly against his idea to acquire Greenland, though polling was more mixed on Mr. Trump’s hopes of reclaiming the Panama Canal.

Abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency draws severe opposition in the YouGov poll, with a net negative of 19 points.

Both Mr. Trump and former President Joe Biden got grim marks for their January pardons. Mr. Trump’s clemency for those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was a net loser in three polls that asked about it.

And Mr. Biden’s pardons for his family members were a whopping 31-point negative in Quinnipiac’s survey.