Three months before the midterm elections, U.S. President Donald Trump's job approval rating has fallen to its lowest level since he took office. As the Iran war drags on and living costs remain burdensome, defections have stood out among Republican supporters and independents outside his core base.
On the 12th (local time), The Hill, a U.S. political outlet, said a survey of 1,589 U.S. adults conducted by the Economist and polling firm YouGov from the 7th to the 10th found that 33% approved of President Trump's job performance, while 62% disapproved.
Net approval, the share approving minus disapproving, was -29%. Both the approval rating and the net approval were the lowest since the Economist and YouGov began their regular presidential approval tracking in 2009, while disapproval was the highest. The margin of error for this survey is ±3.2 percentage points.
By party, 79% of Republicans approved of President Trump's job performance and 21% disapproved. Among Democrats, 4% approved and 95% disapproved, while among independents the figures were 18% and 71%, respectively.
Compared with Jan. 25 last year, early in the launch of the second Trump administration, overall net approval fell from +6% to -29%, a drop of 35 percentage points. Over the same period, among Republicans it fell from +91% to +58%, and among independents from -4% to -53%.
Differences were especially large within the Republican Party by faction. Net approval among "MAGA (Make America Great Again)" supporters dipped slightly from +97% to +85%, while among non-MAGA Republicans it plunged from +84% to +3%, an 81-point drop.
President Trump's current approval is lower than at the same point in his first term and lower than former President Joe Biden's at the comparable point in his term. At the same point, Trump's first-term net approval was -10%, and under the Biden administration it was -17%.
Similar trends appeared in other recent polls. In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 35% approved of President Trump's job performance, and in the Quinnipiac poll it was 32%.
The outlook is that pressure will grow on Republicans ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The party is seeking to keep control of both the House and the Senate, but voters are split over President Trump's handling of the Iran war and inflation. Republican campaign strategists warned that such sentiment could be a headwind in the midterms.
By issue, about 40% of respondents supported President Trump's handling of immigration policy. Thirty percent said they trust his ability to deal with international crises.
Among all respondents, 53% said President Trump is "too old" to serve as president. Among Republicans, 17% held that view, while 85% of Democrats agreed.