President Donald Trump is beginning 2026 with a small but notable change in an unlikely place: America’s biggest cities.
A new Fox News poll—fielded January 23–26 among 1,005 registered voters nationwide and conducted by Beacon Research (Democratic) and Shaw & Company Research (Republican)—shows Trump’s job approval improving among urban residents, a group that has historically been among his weakest.
Why It Matters
For a Republican president, even minor movement in major U.S. cities is unusual—and can carry outsized political consequences.
Large urban areas concentrate voters, help shape statewide results, and can influence national political sentiment well before shifts appear in election outcomes. If a president becomes even slightly less unpopular in cities, it can make statewide contests tougher for opponents—especially in battleground states where metro margins drive the final result.
What To Know
According to the Fox News poll’s toplines and cross-tabs, Trump gained ground with urban voters in late January. Approval in cities rose to 40 percent, up from 34 percent in December, while disapproval fell to 60 percent, down from 66 percent.
The December poll—conducted December 12–15 among 1,001 registered voters by the same two firms—carried the same stated margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Both surveys drew respondents randomly from a national voter file and used a combination of landline calls, cellphone calls and online survey links texted to some participants.
The shift does not suddenly make Trump competitive in heavily Democratic urban strongholds. But moving from the mid-30s to around 40 percent approval in cities can still matter politically: it can narrow Democratic margins in metro areas and potentially affect nearby suburbs, where elections are often decided.
Notably, Trump’s overall national approval held steady at 44 percent in the same Fox News polling series, suggesting the movement occurred within a key geographic subgroup even as the headline number remained unchanged.
Fox News tracks urban, suburban and rural results when subgroup sizes reach at least 100 respondents. Because these geographic groupings are weighted alongside other demographic factors—such as age, race, education and region—urban movement can influence the broader approval picture.
In simple terms: within a month, more city-based registered voters told Fox News they approved of Trump’s job performance, and fewer said they disapproved. Even after the increase, urban respondents still rated the president negatively overall—but the change suggests a softening in tone, if not a major shift in allegiance.
What People Are Saying
Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps conduct Fox News polls with Democrat Chris Anderson, said: “The president faces two difficult obstacles—the virtually unanimous and intractable opposition of Democrats and the stubbornness of high prices. Republican officeholders think the economic benefits of the One Big Beautiful Bill will kick in later this year, which will be critical for GOP prospects in the midterm elections.”
White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Newsweek in December: “Over the past year, the Trump administration has delivered critical progress to turn the page on Joe Biden’s economic disaster: cooling inflation, rising real wages, private-sector job growth, and trillions in investments to make and hire in America. The Trump administration will continue to build on this progress in the new year to continue delivering economic relief for the American people.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social on January 22: “Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense. … Something has to be done about Fraudulent Polling.” He added: “Isn’t it sad what has happened to American Journalism, but I am going to do everything possible to keep this Polling SCAM from moving forward!”
What Happens Next
The key question is whether this urban improvement becomes a trend or fades as a one-off fluctuation.
Because the December and January Fox News polls used the same methodology and reported the same stated margin of error, the month-to-month comparison is meaningful. Still, subgroup results can carry higher uncertainty than national toplines, so additional polling will be needed to confirm whether Trump is truly gaining ground with city-based voters or simply hitting a temporary bump.
If the shift holds—even modestly—it could matter most in closely contested states where big metro areas dominate the vote count and small changes in urban margins can ripple across statewide outcomes.
