GEOFF BENNETT: As President Trump gets ready to address Congress for the first time since reentering the Oval Office, our latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll offers a new look at what the American public thinks about the actions his administration has taken in these first 43 days.

Lisa Desjardins is at the super screen to walk us through the numbers.

Hey there, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hi.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, so, big picture.

What do the American people think about the president and the changes he's making?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let's start with that top figure, the approval rating.

Where are Americans that we asked about that right now?

Forty-five percent approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president so far.

I'm going to write that number down.

I want you to remember that 45 percent.

Now, more Americans disapprove, but just barely.

Why is this 45 number significant?

This is Trump's approval rating up and down over time.

Here we are right now at 45 percent.

This is the largest approval rating he has experienced in office as president, much higher than where he ended during his first term.

Now, another thing we asked folks about, all of these actions that Trump is taking, do you think that they are for the good mostly or not for the good, for the bad, for this country?

Did they make things better or worse?

When we asked that question, 45 percent, that same number, said, we think these actions make things better in this country.

Now, it's not a coincidence that those numbers are the same; 45 percent generally like the job he's doing, think it's for the better.

What's being driven -- what's driving that is a single force, Republicans.

Of those who -- when we ask people who they think - - if Trump is doing a better job, 88 percent of Republicans think what Trump is doing is for the better for this country, versus just 12 percent of Democrats.

These two groups live in completely different worlds, almost different planets.

Independents, a minority of them also believe Trump is doing a better job.

It is Republicans who are really pushing Trump's numbers to go higher right now.

Now, at the same time, this poll was taken before the confrontation in the Oval Office with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but Lee Miringoff with the Marist poll says what Trump is doing is he's flooding the zone with controversial action.

LEE MIRINGOFF, Director, Marist Institute for Public Opinion: We're just seeing a lot of things happening with little time for the public to digest.

The net effect of it all is there's a sense on the part of the public that some things are moving just a little too fast and they're not totally convinced that things are moving in the right direction.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk about the pace of change because the president has signed something like 76 executive orders.

He's fired thousands of federal workers, slashed and frozen government spending.

What are people saying about that?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

We wanted to get deeper into these unprecedented actions.

And we asked, do you think President Trump is rushing things, not considering the consequences, or are his actions something that need to happen in order to get government on track?

Here's how people answered that question.

Most people, 56 percent, said they think Trump is rushing, he's not considering the impact of his actions.

That's the majority.

However, it is a significant group, 43 percent in our poll, who said they think what Trump is doing is necessary to keeping government on track.

Our producer Matt Loffman called some of the people who answered our poll.

One of them was a Republican in Texas who told us he does think he likes what Trump is doing on immigration, but also in general.

GILBERT, Republican From Texas: He's trying to keep his promises.

We have to correct the destruction that has happened to our country and society over the last four years.

You cannot turn all the years of damage in one or two or three or four months.

It takes -- it's much easier to destroy things than build them.

LISA DESJARDINS: What about all those cuts, the cuts to federal funding and all the mass layoffs?

We asked people about that as well.

We saw a similar figure here.

Most people, 55 percent, said all of these cuts are doing more harm than good.

Now, this is the number Trump really has to watch as far as the future goes and Republicans.

We spoke to an independent voter in Michigan who said -- and he works in general contracting for the government, said what he's experienced in this first month, he's seen just chaos.

J.K., Independent From Michigan: Everything is going at breakneck speed to dismantle a system that's been standing tall and working for the American people for decades.

They're performing surgery with a sword and a blindfold.

And they're just moving at this breakneck, chaotic speed.

And it's unnecessary.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how do those polled view Elon Musk, who is in many ways the face of the Trump administration effort to scale back the size of government and fire federal workers?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, holding the sword.

Now, how -- what's the approval rating look like for him?

Thirty-nine percent.

Of course, that is lower than Trump's approval rating of 45.

But what we have seen in the past month or so, two months, Republicans are warming up to him more, not Democrats or independents.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, we saw some Republican members of Congress in recent weeks face a real onslaught of anger from their constituents in those town hall meetings.

How are those polled?

How do they view Congress and our system of checks and balances?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is now a question at American dinner tables.

How is the Constitution holding up?

So we did ask, do you think checks and balances, that system, is working now?

Right, today, 56 percent in the last week or so believe, no, our checks and balances system is not working.

But what is dramatic here is what a change this is from December, when we asked the same question.

Look at this.

In December, 66 percent, two-thirds, said, yes, checks and balances, it's holding up.

But that is a complete flip now, where a majority of Americans say, no, we don't think checks and balances are holding up.

We spoke to an independent voter in Texas, who told us she has a message for her Republican congressman on how they should handle and work with Donald Trump.

TANYA, Independent From Texas: They should be taking him to task and they should be calling amongst themselves and start voting on things and start taking control of the things they actually have control of.

But everybody's too afraid of offending a constituent that they're just letting him run amuck, because they're also afraid of him and that they won't get voted in again.

LISA DESJARDINS: One last important and unusual question that we asked, do you think Donald Trump will abide by court orders?

Will he follow the law?

Right now, Geoff, a majority of Americans, 58 percent, incredibly, believe that the current president of the United States will not follow the law and abide by court rulings -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, our thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can read more details from our poll.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.