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President Donald Trump is starting 2026 with a shift in an unlikely corner of the electorate: Americans living in the nation’s largest cities.
A new Fox News poll—conducted January 23-26 under the joint direction of Democratic pollster Beacon Research and Republican pollster Shaw & Company Research among 1,005 registered voters nationwide—found the president’s job approval rising modestly among urban residents, a group that has been one of his weakest since he returned to office.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment via email outside regular business hours.
Why It Matters
For a Republican president, movement inside the U.S.’s major cities is rare, and even small changes can have disproportionate political consequences.
Urban areas hold dense concentrations of voters, drive statewide outcomes and often shape national political sentiment long before it shows up in election results.
What To Know
Trump gained ground with urban voters in the late-January Fox News poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, as approval in cities rose to 40 percent from 34 percent in December, while disapproval fell to 60 percent from 66 percent, according to the Fox News survey’s cross-tabs and top lines.
Fox News’ end-of-year poll of 1,001 registered voters, conducted December 12-15 by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company, also had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Both polls selected respondents randomly from a national voter file. Interviews were completed through a mix of landlines, cellphones and online survey links texted to a subset of voters.
Although it is hardly friendly territory for the Republican president, this latest shift in how urban voters approve of how he is doing his job represents a meaningful movement.
A president who improves from 34 percent to about 40 percent in American cities does not suddenly become competitive in these largely Democratic strongholds, but he becomes harder to defeat statewide.
Urban softening can also bleed into adjacent suburbs, where political margins are often decisive.
This month-over-month shift among urban voters came as Trump’s overall approval held at 44 percent nationally in the same Fox News series, underscoring movement inside a key geographic subgroup even as the top line stayed flat.
Urban voters are one of the core subgroups tracked by Fox News in its national polling, which reports results by area—urban, suburban and rural—when subgroup sample sizes reach at least 100 respondents.
Because these area categories are weighted alongside age, race, education and region to reflect the registered voter population, shifts within urban areas can influence the overall approval picture.
In plain terms: Within a month, more city-dwelling registered voters told Fox News they approved of Trump’s job performance, and fewer said they disapproved.
Even with that improvement, however, most urban respondents still gave the president negative marks.
While Trump is still underwater by a wide margin, a six‑point increase inside such strongly Democratic territory signals that voter attitudes in the country’s biggest population centers may be shifting in tone, if not allegiance.
Urban voters matter because they anchor Democratic strength.
When they budge, even slightly, it often suggests that broader perceptions of presidential performance are settling in—especially among groups that have been highly resistant to Trump since his return to office.
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.”
President Donald 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 question now is whether Trump can build on this movement, or whether it represents a temporary fluctuation within a group that historically has little affinity for him.
Because both Fox News surveys used identical methods and margins of error, the December‑to‑January comparison is significant. But subgroup margins are always higher, which means future polls must confirm whether Trump truly is gaining ground among city‑based voters or whether these numbers plateau.
Still, if the trend holds—even modestly—it could matter in tightly contested states where major metro areas dominate the vote count.
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