{"id":58271,"date":"2026-07-29T13:44:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/58271\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:44:29","slug":"donald-trumps-approval-rating-drops-to-all-time-low-with-major-pollster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/58271\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s Approval Rating Drops to All-Time Low With Major Pollster"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s approval rating has fallen to the lowest point of either of his terms in office, according to a new Economist\/YouGov poll.<\/p>\n

The survey, conducted July 25-27 among 1,559 U.S. adult citizens, found 34 percent approve of the job Trump is doing as president, down 2 points from the previous week, while 62 percent disapprove, up 2 points. It is the lowest approval rating Trump has recorded with the pollster since returning to office, surpassing previous lows notched earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The poll was conducted online and has a margin of error of \u00b13.3 percentage points. <\/p>\n

Read More on Politics<\/p>\n

A Career-Low Number, Split Down Party Lines<\/p>\n

Trump’s standing with voters has eroded steadily since the spring, as an unpopular war with Iran<\/a>, persistent inflation concerns and rising gas prices have weighed on his numbers. The Economist\/YouGov poll is conducted weekly with a large national sample, and its finding of a new career low adds to a broader pattern showing Trump underwater with the electorate roughly three months before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

The survey found deep divides by party, race and education. Trump’s net approval rating, the share who approve minus the share who disapprove, stood at plus 64 among Republicans<\/a> but minus 92 among Democrats and minus 53 among independents. He was underwater by 25 points among voters without a college degree and by 35 points among college graduates. <\/p>\n

By race, his net approval was minus 18 among white voters, minus 34 among Hispanic voters and minus 62 among Black voters.<\/p>\n

The White House Pushes Back<\/p>\n

The White House disputed the significance of the sliding numbers. <\/p>\n

“The ultimate poll was November 5th 2024 when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Newsweek. “No other President in history has accomplished more for the American people than President Trump, who is working tirelessly to create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability, and more.”<\/p>\n

Ingle added that Trump “has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”<\/p>\n

Other Pollsters Show the Same Slide<\/p>\n

The Economist\/YouGov finding lines up with a cluster of recent surveys that have shown Trump stuck below 40 percent for months. A Washington Post\/Ipsos poll released in mid-July put his approval at 37 percent and disapproval at 61 percent, unchanged from April, with his ratings on the economy<\/a>, immigration and the Iran war<\/a> all below 40 percent. A CBS News\/YouGov poll conducted July 21-24 found 39 percent approval and 61 percent disapproval, with approval of the U.S. military campaign against Iran falling to 39 percent from 44 percent in March.<\/p>\n

A Pew Research Center survey conducted July 6-12 put Trump’s approval at 34 percent, matching the new Economist\/YouGov number, with 64 percent disapproving. That poll also found Democrats holding a six-point edge on the generic congressional ballot, with a plurality of voters, 42 percent, saying their vote for Congress this fall will be a vote against Trump, compared with 22 percent who said it would be a vote for him.<\/p>\n

Polling averages tell a similar story. FiftyPlusOne’s weighted average had Trump at 36.8 percent approval and 59.8 percent disapproval as of July 27, a net approval of minus 23. Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin average showed Trump’s net approval at minus 17.4 as of the same date, an improvement from a second-term low of minus 20.2 in May but still weaker than his standing at the equivalent point in his first term. Trump began his second term with a 52 percent approval rating, according to The New York Times’ polling average, before his numbers slid following the rollout of tariffs last spring and the start of the Iran war.<\/p>\n

The new poll’s cross-tabs point to weakness with the voters who decide close elections. Trump’s approval among independents, a group that swung to Republicans in 2024, has been running well below the 40 percent threshold strategists consider the floor for a party trying to avoid a midterm wave. His minus-53 net approval among independents is among the worst in any recent poll.<\/p>\n

The Numbers Behind the Slide<\/p>\n

The economic backdrop behind the falling numbers is measurable. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported June’s consumer price index fell 0.4 percent from May, the largest one-month drop in more than six years, bringing annual inflation down to 3.5 percent from 4.2 percent in May. Core prices, which exclude food and energy, held flat for the month at a 2.6 percent annual rate.<\/p>\n

Gas prices tell a more volatile story. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $4.10 on Monday, according to AAA, up sharply from $3.83 in early July as fighting resumed in the Strait of Hormuz. Prices had peaked at $4.56 on May 21 during an earlier flare-up, and were as low as $2.96 on Feb. 26, two days before the war began.<\/p>\n

Consumer sentiment has moved in the opposite direction, though with a catch. The University of Michigan’s preliminary July index climbed to 54.4, up from 49.5 in June and the highest reading since February, as easing gas prices lifted household outlooks. But the survey was conducted between June 23 and July 13, largely before the ceasefire collapsed and gas prices resumed climbing, meaning the improvement may not survive the next reading. Sentiment remains about 12 percent below where it stood a year ago, and one-year inflation expectations, at 4.2 percent, are still well above the 3.4 percent recorded in February, before the war.<\/p>\n

A Steady Slide Since Spring<\/p>\n

Trump’s approval has fluctuated within a narrow band for months, but the trend has mostly pointed downward. His numbers briefly ticked up in April before dropping sharply in May to what pollsters described at the time as the lowest of either term, driven by tariff-fueled inflation concerns. Since then, a string of surveys, including Pew, Washington Post\/Ipsos, CBS News\/YouGov and now Economist\/YouGov, have kept him mired in the mid-to-high 30s.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

The Economist\/YouGov survey also asked about Trump’s handling of specific issues, including foreign policy, health care and nuclear weapons, with disapproval outpacing approval on every measure tested. On foreign policy, 32 percent approved and 60 percent disapproved. On health care, 31 percent approved and 59 percent disapproved. Only 30 percent approved of his handling of the Iran war spending, while 60 percent said the U.S. is spending too much.<\/p>\n

How Donald Trump\u2019s Approval Rating Has Changed During Iran War<\/p>\n

Every collapse of the truce in 2026 has dragged down Trump’s numbers. Every time it has held, they have climbed back. Data from Nate Silver’s Bulletin average shows that the swings have tracked the ceasefire’s status almost exactly since the war began in February.<\/p>\n

Trump had posted some of his best numbers of the war in mid-June. Approval reached 43 percent, and disapproval fell to 52 percent on June 16, a day after U.S. and Iranian officials reached a preliminary framework to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

That followed a rebound in late May, when approval rose to 43.3 percent after reports emerged on May 24 that Washington and Tehran were nearing a broader peace agreement, holding near that level into mid-June.<\/p>\n

The May recovery came after a steep decline earlier that month. Iranian attacks on the United Arab Emirates on May 4, days after Trump announced a U.S. military effort called Project Freedom to help commercial ships transit the Strait of Hormuz, sent approval falling to 41.9 percent by May 12, nearly matching the low point from the war’s opening days.<\/p>\n

Before that slide, Trump had reached his high point of the year. Approval climbed to 44.4 percent on April 20, the day before he extended the ceasefire indefinitely, up from 42.9 percent when Pakistan first brokered the truce on April 7 and 8.<\/p>\n

The starting point for all of this was February. Trump’s approval sank to a 2026 low of 41.6 percent on February 26, two days before Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes that opened the war. Disapproval hit 55.4 percent in that same stretch, the highest mark of the year. <\/p>\n

That low point came almost two months after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in a January 3 raid on Caracas, a separate operation that had briefly boosted Trump’s numbers before they began sliding again into February.<\/p>\n

What the Slump Could Mean in November<\/p>\n

Presidential approval ratings below 40 percent have historically preceded difficult midterm cycles for the incumbent party. Trump had a 40 percent approval rating at the equivalent point in his first term, according to Gallup, ahead of the 2018 midterms<\/a>, when Democrats flipped 41 House seats. Analysts tracking the 2026 midterms have pointed to Trump’s approval among independents, currently well below 40 percent in most surveys, as the most decisive figure for forecasting House control, since Republican base support has remained relatively stable near 90 percent throughout his term.<\/p>\n

The Economist\/YouGov poll also found only 27 percent of respondents say the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 63 percent who say it is on the wrong track. Congressional approval registered even lower than Trump’s, with just 12 percent approving of the job Congress is doing, underscoring broad dissatisfaction with Washington heading into the midterms in which control of the House and Senate will be decided.<\/p>\n

Republicans have sought to offset the erosion in Trump’s approval with structural advantages, including redistricting gains in several red states that have widened the House map in their favor. But strategists have said those advantages could be overwhelmed if Trump’s approval remains depressed through next fall, given the historical pattern of the president’s party losing ground in midterms, a pattern that tends to worsen when a president is unpopular.<\/p>\n

Republican strategist Alex Patton doesn’t see much room for the party to maneuver around any of it.<\/p>\n

“Affordability is affordability, and voters get frequent reminders of how affordable things are or are not, gas, food, electricity bill, etc.,” Patton told Newsweek.<\/p>\n

Where the Redistricting Gains Are Coming From<\/p>\n

Eight Republican-led states, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama, redrew their congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, part of a mid-decade redistricting push Trump initiated in Texas in 2025. Analysts at the Cook Political Report and NBC News have estimated the new maps could net Republicans as many as 16 additional House seats, though a more recent Fox News analysis in July put the realistic gain closer to a dozen. <\/p>\n

Democrats, whose main counter came from a California map approved by voters, are positioned to pick up roughly six seats under the new lines, according to NBC’s tally, a gap that has left Republicans with a narrower but real structural edge heading into November.<\/p>\n

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon <\/a>and Gray R. Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump‘s approval rating has fallen to the lowest point of either of his terms in office,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[38,8,96,10694,9,753,412,7],"class_list":["post-58271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran-war","tag-midterms","tag-news","tag-polls","tag-republicans","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117003568095569033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}