An average of recent polls from the New York Times shows that his approval rating as of May 28 is 44%, with 52% disapproving of his performance.

On July 4, Trump signed his big tax bill into law, which included major cuts to Medicaid and an expansion of the budget for immigration enforcement.

A YouGov poll found 53% of respondents oppose Trump’s big budget bill, with a plurality saying it will hurt the average American “a lot” and 56% saying that Medicaid should be given more funding.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has declined over the past month amid the passage of his slate of tax and spending priorities known as the Big Beautiful Bill and his decision to launch airstrikes against Iran.

An average of recent polls from the New York Times shows that his approval rating as of May 28 is 44%, with 52% disapproving of his performance. This is slightly down from a month ago, when his approval rating hit 46% in early June.

In the past week, Trump signed his big tax bill into law, which included major cuts to Medicaid and an expansion of the budget for immigration enforcement, threatened several more countries with increased tariffs, and is likely to move forward with mass firings of federal workers after a July 8 Supreme Court decision.

Here’s what some of the most current polls show about Trump’s presidential job approval rating as of July 10.

What is Trump’s current presidential approval rating?

Economist/YouGov:

Disapprove +11 (42% approve, 53% disapprove)

Poll taken July 4-7

1,528 adults

According to the YouGov poll, 53% of respondents oppose Trump’s big budget bill, with a plurality saying it will hurt the average American “a lot” and 56% saying that Medicaid should be given more funding.

Morning Consult:

Disapprove +7 (45% approve, 52% disapprove)

Poll taken July 3-6

2,203 registered voters

The poll also found that Trump’s approval rating on health care hit a record low, with voters being nine points more likely to disapprove than approve of Trump’s handling of health care. It’s a reversal of his approval on this issue before he took office.

Marist College:

Disapprove +9 (43% approve, 52% disapprove)

Poll taken June 23-25

1,381 adults

Emerson College:

Local News Rescuers save 400-pound sea turtle tangled in fishing gear off Cape Cod The massive leatherback turtle was found quickly in the waters off Barnstable. A leatherback sea turtle was found entangled in fishing gear near Barnstable last week. New England Aquarium under NMFS Permit #21301-01

Rescue teams successfully saved the life of an approximately 400-pound sea turtle after finding it entangled in fishing gear in Cape Cod Bay.

The Barnstable harbormaster, staff members from the New England Aquarium, and a team from the Center for Coastal Studies responded to the waters off Barnstable last Thursday to help the leatherback turtle. The 6-foot-long animal had luckily avoided serious injury, and rescuers arrived quickly, the aquarium’s Director of Animal Health Melissa Joblon said in a statement.

“The turtle had a rope entanglement around the shoulder region of its right front flipper, but fortunately it was detected quickly and the gear was still loose with minimal damage to the flipper,” Joblon said. “Overall, the turtle appeared healthy, active, and in great body condition, so we suspect it will do very well after release.”

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After the turtle was disentangled, it was given a health exam that included bloodwork. Satellite and acoustic tags were then attached to it so that it could be monitored after release. The acoustic transmitter, which the aquarium compared to an EZ pass transponder, enables the turtle to be detected from up to 10 yards away by underwater receivers that are in place all along the East Coast. The satellite tag will allow researchers to monitor the animal’s movements and dive behavior in real-time for up to a year.

Scientists have dubbed the leatherback “Phinney.” It can be followed by the public through an online tracker operated by the aquarium.

Rescuers work to save the turtle, which weighed about 400 pounds and measured around six feet long. – New England Aquarium under NMFS Permit #21301-01

Leatherbacks are the world’s largest sea turtle species. Highly migratory animals, they roam oceans around the world. Some have been known to swim 10,000 miles a year between where they nest and forage. The global population has decreased 40% over the last three generations, according to the aquarium. Accidental capture in fishing gear is the top risk they face, but leatherback populations are also threatened by vessel strikes, the harvesting of their eggs, and the degradation of nesting habitats.

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Kara Dodge, a scientist at the aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, has studied leatherbacks since 2007. A recent project focuses specifically on fishing gear entanglements.

“It’s critical that we understand the outcomes of leatherback sea turtles after they’re disentangled from fishing gear,” Dodge said in a statement. “We’re using satellite and acoustic tags to monitor their post-release survival and behavior over time. One tag will give us real-time information so that we can keep a watchful eye on this turtle while it’s inhabiting our busy coastal waters this summer and fall.”

Every year, hundreds of much smaller green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are saved by researchers after they get trapped in the cooling waters of Cape Cod Bay. They are rehabilitated at a “sea turtle hospital” in Quincy and released back into the ocean. Earlier this month, six critically endangered sea turtles were released from West Dennis Beach.

Any boaters who see whales, sea turtles, or other marine animals entangled or in danger should contact the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team at the Center for Coastal Studies by calling 1-800-900-3622.

Ross Cristantiello Staff Writer Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.

The leatherback turtles are here for their annual visit, feeding in Cape Cod Bay. The loggerheads are here too — though they’re more recent arrivals as climate change has made the water more hospitable to them.

Both species of sea turtles are listed as federally endangered, and both are at risk of crossing paths with boats and fishing gear that can leave them injured or dead in our busy summer waters. The peak time for these encounters is still ahead — now through September — but this year already looks to be an especially bad one for the turtles.

When a sea turtle washes ashore or is found dead in the water, Mass Audubon is charged with responding. Most years, by the middle of July, their teams will have responded to two to four stranded turtles on the Cape and Islands, said Karen Dourdeville, the organization’s sea turtle stranding coordinator.

This year, her team has so far found 11 dead turtles, all of them loggerheads. Six of them had wounds consistent with boat strikes, while the other five were found dead but without the gashes in their shells that characterize those strikes. Sea turtle researchers think they may have drowned after being entangled in fishing gear.

The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown has responded to three different entangled leatherback sea turtles, all in the latter half of July, according to Scott Landry, director of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program at the center. All three survived and were released. Landry’s team attached a tracker to one of them, which they named Phinney, to monitor its survival. As of July 26, it was doing well.

Sea turtles take a long time to reach maturity — upwards of 30 years for loggerheads — so every adult turtle that is saved is one more viable reproductive member in the population, said Dourdeville.

Look Out for Loggerheads

Loggerhead sea turtles are particularly susceptible to boat strikes, Dourdeville said, because they tend to swim just below the surface where they can be hard to distinguish from a patch of seaweed.

Dourdeville said that boaters should keep an eye on the water ahead of their boats for animals on the surface. “You’re going to have a more interesting trip, and you might save a sea turtle,” she said.

The six loggerhead turtles that suffered boat strikes so far this year were found south of the Cape: two off Chatham, one each off Falmouth, Yarmouth, and Barnstable, and another far offshore.

It’s hard to know whether the increase in boat strikes is because more of the turtles are here or because of a larger number of boaters, or whether it’s a case of “wrong place, wrong time,” Dourdeville said. “We just don’t know.”

Entangled Turtles

Most of the turtles that end up entangled around Cape Cod are the all-dark leatherbacks — the largest sea turtles in the world. These reptiles regularly get caught in fishing gear, particularly pot fishing gear used to fish for lobster and conch. It’s hard to find a pattern in the entanglements: some years, Landry and his team see as few as five entanglements over the summer; other years they may see up to 60.

As for the loggerheads that appear to have been entangled, Landry said he suspects that may be happening more regularly than his team has realized.

Loggerheads eat a variety of foods, including dead fish, which makes bait on a fishing line a tempting meal. If one of these turtles were to eat bait from a detached line, it could get caught on the hook, then become further entangled, Landry said, until it is eventually no longer able to surface and drowns.

“If a loggerhead becomes entangled on the sea floor, its body won’t be visible for anyone to see,” he said. But as their bodies decay, they might detach from the hooks, eventually washing ashore with no visible wounds.

Without disentanglement efforts, Landry said, it would be unlikely that any of these turtles would survive. “They don’t have claws, they don’t have teeth, they can’t help themselves out of the entanglement,” he said.

If you encounter a sea turtle, alive or dead, Dourdeville says to report it to the Sea Turtle Sighting Hotline for Southern New England Boaters, which is part of the sea turtle program at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, by going online to seaturtlesightings.org or by calling 1-888-SEA-TURT (888-732-8878). The hotline collates sea turtle sightings to better inform boaters about their presence.

If the turtle is entangled, Doudeville said, call the Center for Coastal Studies entanglement hotline at 1-800-900-3622.

Ten sea turtles rescued from cold waters last year have been returned to the deep.The New England Aquarium says the marine reptiles were released on Cape Cod last week. The 10 turtles were found on New England beaches in November and December after almost perishing in frigid conditions.The released animals include five loggerheads, three green sea turtles and two Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species. Some of the turtles were outfitted with tracking devices to allow researchers to study their behavior to aid in further conservation efforts.After their rescue, the turtles were cared for at the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Mass. In addition to hypothermia, some of the turtles were suffering from pneumonia and even broken bones.Sea turtles get cold-stunned and lethargic when water chills quickly and they can’t get to warmer waters. The cold alone can kill them, and can also lead to serious illness.Related stories:

Ten sea turtles rescued from cold waters last year have been returned to the deep.

The New England Aquarium says the marine reptiles were released on Cape Cod last week. The 10 turtles were found on New England beaches in November and December after almost perishing in frigid conditions.

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The released animals include five loggerheads, three green sea turtles and two Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species. Some of the turtles were outfitted with tracking devices to allow researchers to study their behavior to aid in further conservation efforts.

After their rescue, the turtles were cared for at the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Mass. In addition to hypothermia, some of the turtles were suffering from pneumonia and even broken bones.

Sea turtles get cold-stunned and lethargic when water chills quickly and they can’t get to warmer waters. The cold alone can kill them, and can also lead to serious illness.

Related stories:

The crystal-clear waters of Martha’s Vineyard attracted a different kind of vacationer when a giant loggerhead turtle spent the Fourth of July feeding on jellyfish off the coast of the Island.

The 330-pound loggerhead turtle, Munchkin, which was recently released on Cape Cod by the New England Aquarium, vacationed along the fertile shores of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket alongside thousands of beachgoing tourists.

The aquarium placed a GPS tracking device on Munchkin’s back to study migratory patterns of loggerhead turtles and get a better understanding of where the turtles stop to feed.

According to Tony LaCasse, media relations director for the aquarium, the turtle’s position is broadcast live via an interactive map whenever she surfaces for air.

LaCasse said researchers at the aquarium weren’t certain where Munchkin would travel during the warm summer months, but because of the amount of jellyfish that inhabit Vineyard waters, she chose to make the trek.

After her release on July 2, Munchkin swam across Nantucket Sound in a little over 30 hours, then began to search for food along the Chappaquiddick shore.

She continued to scour the shoreline for jellies and crabs that are a staple of her diet, according to LaCasse. Now, Munchkin is making a beeline for Block Island.

LaCasse said aquarium scientists are happy the turtle is starting to head into deeper waters, away from areas where human impacts account for a large amount of turtle mortalities. Things like prop strikes and entanglements in fishing nets often injure and kill sea turtles.

LaCasse told the story of how Munchkin was rescued from the waters off Wellfleet after being entangled by a fishing net and losing a part of her front flipper. Because of her injury, LaCasse said she was emaciated and hypothermic. But clinicians at the aquarium slowly nursed her back to health, and now she is able to make her long ocean journeys once more.

“Only one in 1,000 loggerhead hatchlings make it to adulthood — Munchkin is an incredible example of resilience and the power of nature,” LaCasse said.