President Donald Trump’s approval rating<\/a><\/span> slightly dipped in most polls, nearing record-low levels in some of them, as U.S. strikes in Iran continue and challenges to his tariff policies intensify.<\/p>\n On Thursday, May 7, the U.S. military launched “self-defense strikes”<\/a> on Iranian targets following “unprovoked” attacks from the Islamic Republic on U.S. Navy vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n No U.S. assets were struck, but U.S. forces hit Iranian military facilities behind the attacks, U.S. military officials said in a statement, adding that the United States does not want to see an “escalation” of the fighting.<\/p>\n Iran says it launched attacks on U.S. Navy assets after American forces tried to seize an Iranian oil tanker. U.S. forces on Wednesday, May 6, struck an Iranian oil tanker, disabling the vessel.<\/p>\n The president called the attacks a “trifle” but said the ceasefire agreement between the two nations still holds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Pope Leo XIV<\/a> at the Vatican on Thursday following a weeks-long feud between President Trump and the pope<\/a> in which the president called the first American-born pontiff \u201cweak\u201d on crime and accused him of \u201cendangering\u201d Catholics with his opposition to the Iran war.<\/p>\n During his visit, Rubio gifted the head of the Catholic Church a crystal football, and Leo offered the secretary of state a pen made of olive wood. They also discussed “the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,\u201d State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement following the meeting.<\/a><\/p>\n Just hours after the meeting, Rubio hit Cuba’s military regime and elites with more sanctions, using authority<\/a>\u00a0granted to him by\u00a0President Trump<\/a>\u00a0in an executive order he signed last week<\/a>. The humanitarian crisis on the communist-run island was on the agenda of Rubio’s meeting with the pope.<\/p>\n And in another blow to President Trump’s<\/a>\u00a0trade agenda, a federal court ruled Thursday<\/a> against\u00a0a 10% global tariff<\/a>\u00a0the president imposed this year to replace tariffs struck down by the\u00a0Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here’s what to know about Trump’s approval rating, including how they are decided and how Trump’s ratings compare with his first term and past presidents.<\/p>\n Here are the latest approval ratings released about Trump’s administration:<\/p>\nWhat is Donald Trump’s approval rating?<\/h2>\n
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