By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to 32% – the lowest of his political career – as his fellow Republicans soured on his handling of the cost of living amid the unpopular Iran war, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The poll, completed on Sunday, was conducted over a four-day period that saw Trump throw three major news organizations out of the White House and muse that Washington’s iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — named after slain President John F. Kennedy — could be torn down if Trump’s own name could not be added to it.
It found voters leaning away from supporting Trump’s fellow Republicans in the November 3 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the next two years.
Trump’s overall approval was down from a reading of 35% in last week’s Reuters/Ipsos poll, with support among his own Republicans down to 73% from 82% a week earlier.
Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 on promises to tame inflation and end foreign wars. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the hours after he was sworn in, he enjoyed a 47% approval rating.
Just 17% of respondents in the new poll approved of his handling of the cost of living – the top issue Americans say will determine how they vote in November.
IRAN TAKES A TOLL
Dissatisfaction among Republicans on inflation has been growing since Trump launched the war on Iran in February that has pushed gasoline and diesel prices sharply higher. Now for the first time, Republicans who disapprove of Trump’s handling of the cost of living outnumber those who give him a thumbs up – 51% to 44%.
Trump’s approval rating is lower than any recorded for his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, whose presidency was also marked by surging inflation and who ultimately ended his reelection bid after a poor debate performance heightened concerns about his age. Biden’s low was 35%, reached in late October 2024.
Only 34% of the most recent poll respondents approve of the strikes on Iran. The conflict has cut the world off from a significant slice of the oil and gas produced in the Middle East, and threatens to stoke higher inflation in the US and elsewhere as businesses pass on higher fuel costs to consumers.
Trump initially said the conflict would last a few weeks and that Iran needed to be bombed to stop it from developing nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, the Republican leader pledged the war would end “immediately after” the election. But Iran has shown no sign of giving up and in recent weeks Tehran and its allies have threatened further disruptions to oil markets.
Some 82% of poll respondents – including nine in ten Democrats and three-quarters of Republicans – said the conflict would likely go on for an “extended period of time.”
The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed registered voters in the poll picked Democrats over Republicans – 43% to 35% – when asked how they would vote in the midterms. The 8-point gap was the biggest lead for Democrats in Reuters/Ipsos polling this year. For Republicans, losing control of either chamber could complicate Trump’s agenda in the last two years of his term.
The poll results on congressional voting plans provide an overall view of which party Americans nationwide want to see in charge in Congress, though the results don’t capture all the nuances of the state-by-state and district-by-district contests that determine control of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Trump remains popular among Republicans on the issue of immigration – with 79% of his party backing him – but only 36% of Americans overall support his approach to the matter and 55% disapprove. Some Republican allies in Congress have warned that his aggressive campaign to deport people in the country illegally risks alienating voters with family who recently immigrated to America, like some Hispanics.
Some 35% of poll respondents approve of Trump’s approach to fighting crime, compared to 50% who disapprove.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online and gathered 1,277 responses from US adults nationwide. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Deepa Babington and Daniel Wallis)
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