President Donald Trump’s approval rating has slipped to 37%, the lowest in the latest ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, while his disapproval rating climbed to a record 62% across both of his presidential terms. The survey found that two-thirds of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Democrats have widened their midterm lead over Republicans by 5 points.
The numbers show a president still held up by his party but losing ground everywhere else. Forty-five percent of Republicans now strongly approve of Trump, down from 53% in September, and while 85% of Republicans approve of him overall, that support weakens outside the MAGA core. Among MAGA Republicans, 95% approve of Trump and 61% approve strongly. Among non-MAGA Republicans, overall approval falls to 64%, and just 13% approve strongly.
Trump’s slide is also sharp among independents, where approval has fallen to 25% from 30% in October. That weakness is showing up on the issues shaping daily life for many voters. About three-quarters of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living, with 76% negative on that question, while 72% disapprove of his handling of inflation and 65% disapprove of his handling of the economy. Similar shares disapprove of his handling of Iran, at 66%, and relations with U.S. allies, at 65%, and about 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how he is handling taxes.
The economy and Iran are doing the damage. The poll comes as concerns over both have fed a broader souring in public opinion, with the article saying the Iran war has pushed the global economy into an oil crisis and gas prices have reached a four-year high. Trump has tried to argue that his party’s tax policies are helping households, saying that every American at every income level has more money in pockets this week because of Republican tax policies. The poll suggests voters are not buying that case, even as Republicans remain the main force keeping his overall approval from falling further. The question now is whether that base is enough to protect the Republican Party as the midterm map starts to harden against it.
