Trump approval falls to record low of 32pc as high costs bite, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

President Donald Trump’s approval rating plummeted to 32 percent, the lowest of his political career, as fellow Republicans soured on his management of the expense of living amid the unpopular Iran conflict, a new Reuters/Ipsos survey revealed.

Sunday’s poll was taken over a four-day period in which Trump expelled three major news organizations from the White House and mused that Washington’s iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named after assassinated President John F. Kennedy, could be razed if Trump’s own name could not be added.

It found voters moving away from backing Trump’s fellow Republicans in the Nov. 3 midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress for the next two years.

Overall approval of Trump fell to 35% in last week’s Reuters/Ipsos poll from 40% a week before, with support among his own Republicans falling to 73% from 82% a week ago.

Trump returned to the White House in Jan. 2025 with vows he would curb inflation and cease international hostilities. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken hours after his swearing-in showed he had a 47% approval rating.

Only 17% of respondents to the new poll approved of his handling of the cost of living, which Americans say is the top issue that will affect how they vote in November.

IRAN SHUTS DOWN TOLL

Since Trump launched his assault on Iran in February, Republicans have been increasingly unhappy about inflation, as gasoline and diesel prices have soared. For the first time, Republicans who disapprove of Trump’s handling of the expense of living outweigh those who give him a thumbs up – 51% to 44%.

Trump’s approval rating is lower than any of his Democratic predecessors, including Joe Biden who also faced increasing inflation throughout his presidency and finally dropped out of his reelection quest after a poor debate performance raised concerns about his age. Biden’s low was 35% in late October 2024.

The latest poll finds that only 34% of respondents support the strikes on Iran. The war has cut the world off from a large share of the oil and gas produced in the ⁠Middle East, and risks stoking higher inflation in the US and beyond as companies pass higher fuel prices onto consumers.

Trump first claimed the fight would last a few weeks and Iran should be destroyed to stop it from making nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, the Republican leader promised that the war would cease “immediately after” the election. But Iran has showed no sign of backing down and Tehran and its allies have ramped up threats in recent weeks of future disruptions to oil markets.

“The conflict is likely to continue for a “extended length of time,” according to the poll, with 82% of respondents saying so – including nine in ten Democrats and three-quarters of Republicans.

Asked how they would vote in the elections, registered voters in the poll favored Democrats over Republicans – 43% vs 35%, the Reuters/Ipsos poll indicated. The 8-point margin was the largest Democratic advantage this year in Reuters/Ipsos polls. For Republicans, losing either chamber may make Trump’s agenda more difficult to advance in the final two years of his presidency.

The results of the poll on congressional voting intentions provide a broad sense of ⁠which party Americans across the country would like to see running things in Congress, though the results don’t reflect all the complexities of the state-by-state and district-by-district races that determine who will control the Senate and House of Representatives.

Trump’s immigration policy remains popular among Republicans – 79% of his party support him – but only 36% of Americans overall support his approach to the subject and 55% disapprove. certain Republican friends in Congress have cautioned that his hard-line drive to deport those in the country illegally risks alienating voters with relatives who recently moved to America, such as certain Hispanics.

About 35% of those surveyed approve of Trump’s strategy to fighting crime, while 50% disapprove.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, and received 1,277 responses from US adults across the country. There was a margin of error of 3 percentage points.