Support in state still higher than national average
By Shaun Chornobroff
SCDailyGazette.com
Almost 100 days into his second term, President Donald Trump has seen his approval in South Carolina dip slightly, according to a Winthrop Poll released Monday, April 28. Still, favor for Trump in the state outperformed his ratings on the national stage.
The poll, published on the eve of his 100th day in office, found that 49.8% of people who had an opinion approved of Trump’s work thus far, a more than three percentage point drop since March.
Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop and the poll’s director, told the S.C. Daily Gazette that the rapid slicing of the federal government, a slew of executive orders and tariffs increased Trump’s polarization, especially as some start feeling the direct impact of those decisions.
“We’re seeing more people get used to Trump the president and not Trump the candidate,” he said.
Whether or not respondents looked favorably upon the president’s performance to date tracked heavily along party lines.
Among self-identified Republicans, who made up roughly a third of all respondents, Trump’s approval rating sits at 80% — largely unchanged since March. Meanwhile, disfavor among self-identified Democrats, who made up a quarter of all respondents, grew four points to 85%.
The remaining 42% of all respondents identified as independent or declined to name a political affiliation.
(Voters don’t register by party in South Carolina, and the poll was not limited to likely voters.)
Similarly, the Winthrop poll found that 47% of South Carolinians believe the country is on “the wrong track.” Eighty-one percent of Democrats hold that sentiment. Inversely, Republicans think the opposite, with 69% of respondents saying it is trending in the right direction.
“People’s opinions on the direction the country is headed depend heavily on whether their side holds power,” Huffmon said. “This is true at both the national and state level.”
More popular in the Palmetto State
Despite increased skepticism, Trump, who received more than 58% of the vote in November in South Carolina, remains more popular in the Palmetto State than he does nationwide.
A survey from Pew Research Center released on April 23 found the president’s national approval rating to be at 40%. Gallup has Trump at 44%, according to its most recent poll.
“South Carolina approval for President Trump among those with an opinion is notably higher than his national support but struggles to break into a clear majority,” Huffmon said.
On average, Trump’s approval rating sits at 44% as of Monday, according to a New York Times aggregation of numerous polls around the country. On Feb. 17, the president had an average approval of 50%.
In a Truth Social post Monday morning, Trump said not to believe the numbers. He specifically criticized a trio of polls, saying they should be investigated for election fraud.
He mentioned a joint survey done by ABC, The Washington Post and Ipsos, which concluded Trump had a 39% approval rating. He also railed against a New York Times-Siena Poll where 42% of respondents approved of him, as well as a Fox News survey that placed his favorability at 44%.
“They are Negative Criminals who apologize to their subscribers and readers after I WIN ELECTIONS BIG, much bigger than their polls showed I would win,” Trump wrote.
Graham lags among GOP
The Winthrop Poll also took South Carolinians’ temperature on other GOP politicians — notably U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is seeking his fifth term in the Senate in 2026.
At 44%, Graham’s approval rating among partisan Republicans who expressed an opinion was noticeably lower than two other statewide officials included in the poll — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster.
McMaster and Scott, the co-chairs for Graham’s 2026 re-election campaign, had a 58% and 56% approval rating among Republicans.
Graham has $15.9 million cash on hand, according to the latest FEC filings and already secured Trump’s endorsement for next year’s election.
“Senator Graham has a large campaign war chest and is not underwater approval-wise with his party,” Huffmon said. “This is a decent foundation upon which one could build a strong re-election campaign. Still, many on the right may view the fact that Graham’s numbers are substantially lower than those of his GOP colleagues as an invitation for a primary challenge.”
Graham has drawn multiple primary challengers in his last two Senate bids.
Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman, announced a bid to challenge Graham in February. He moved more than $5 million of his own money into his campaign account in March, according to FEC filings.
The latest Winthrop poll was conducted online and via telephone between April 4 and April 12 from a sampling of South Carolina adults; 1,546 people responded.
The results were weighted to align with South Carolina’s demographics for race, sex and age based on census data. Findings using all respondents have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.49%. The margin of error increases to 4.29 points with Republican respondents and 5.05 points with Democratic respondents.
Shaun Chornobroff covers the state legislature for the S.C. Daily Gazette, part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
