As President Trump’s third week in office wraps up, we have a better idea of how Minnesotans feel about him and what people think about Minnesota’s top politicians.

Despite a chaotic start to the legislative session after his DFL party lost seats in the House and a losing effort as the running mate of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, Governor Tim Walz maintains a healthy approval rating in Minnesota.

According to our KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Walz has a 52% approval rating, with 44% disapproval.

“What’s striking about Tim Walz’s approval is that it remains strong. He seems to be the Teflon governor,” said Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier.

The Walz approval rating is the same as in October before the election and so is President Donald Trump’s approval.

Trump is at 47% approval, with 47% disapproval.

“Minnesota is a bit more democratic than the country as a whole. Trump is at 50% or above nationally. He’s below 50% in Minnesota and very similar to where he was on Election Day in 2024,” Schier added.

Some of the president’s actions are getting mixed reviews, including mass pardons for Jan. 6 protesters.

Forty-two percent say the cases should have been reviewed individually, 35% said no pardons and just 15% said they should have all been pardoned.

As for his attempt to end “Birthright citizenship,” 49% disagree and 37% say they agree.

Schier says it’s hard for the public to keep up. “What the Trump administration is doing is sort of a fire hose approach to public policy. So many things are happening so quickly.”

As for Minnesota’s two U.S. senators — Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith — Klobuchar remains the most popular politician in Minnesota, with 57% approval and 31% disapproval.

Sen. Smith is 10 points below Klobuchar at 47% approval but only 28% disapprove. Her biggest problem is that 25% have no opinion of her.

“Tina Smith has a low public profile consistently in the KSTP surveys. That is an opportunity for Republicans when she runs for reelection,” Schier says.

Smith hasn’t announced yet whether she will run again in 2026.

SurveyUSA interviewed 700 adults from the state of Minnesota 01/29/25 through 01/31/25. Of the adults, 620 were identified as being registered to vote and were asked the substantive questions which follow. This research was conducted online, using nonprobability sample of online adult panelists chosen randomly by Lucid Holdings LLC of New Orleans. The combined pool of survey respondents was weighted to US Census ACS targets for gender, age, race, education, and home ownership. The survey included 34% Democrats, 32% Republicans and 29% independents.