Donald Trump's approval ratings reaching record lows in new polls

Sept. 26, 2026, 3:00 a.m. ET

President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has fallen to historic lows, with one poll aggregator showing an average of 34.7% approval.
Analysts suggest the president’s unpopularity could lead to a “Blue wave” in the midterm elections, with Democrats projected to take control of Congress.
Voters may use the midterms to send a message about their dissatisfaction with the president, even though he is not on the ballot.
Recent polls show Trump’s approval rating ranging from a low of 29% to a high of 39%, depending on the survey.

A string of recent polls for President Donald Trump are a bad sign for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, as many voters say they see their vote in congressional elections as a referendum on the president.

Polls from this week show the president’s approval rating is reaching new all-time lows. Currently, Trump has an average approval rating of 34.7% and a disapproval rating of 62% among U.S. adults, down from the 52% approval he had a month into his second term, according to FiftyPlusOne, a polling and elections tracking website that aggregates major polls.

“The reaction from the public is much more severe than it was during his first presidency,” G. Elliott Morris, FiftyPlusOne’s head of analytics, told USA TODAY. “The wheels have just totally fallen off in the eyes of the public in the last six months.”

FiftyPlusOne estimates that Democrats will gain 25 seats in the House of Representatives and four or five in the Senate, enough to gain majorities in both houses in November.

“It’s very, very, very unlikely for Republicans to hold on to their majority,” Morris said. “This election has all of the hallmarks of a big blue wave in our analysis.”

Trump’s approval ratings tumble ahead of midterms

A Sept. 21 Reuters/Ipsos poll saw Trump sink to the lowest approval rating of his political career. Just 32% of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance, down 3 percentage points from its last survey and a new record low across both of his presidential terms.

On the same day, a survey by longtime pollster New Hampshire-based American Research Group put Trump’s approval rating at 29% from 1,100 respondents.

In an Emerson College poll released Sept. 24, Trump had a 39% approval rating and a nearly 58% disapproval rating. The survey said 56% of likely voters think the president has done worse than expected in his second term, while just 26% said Trump has done better than expected.

Trump’s approval is being dragged down by the nation’s struggling economy, high gas prices, a trade war, immigration enforcement and the ongoing war in Iran as Democrats look to take control of the GOP-led Congress. The president has repeatedly asked his supporters to pretend he’s on the ballot, but an association with him could harm GOP candidates among independents.

A Sept. 22 Economist/YouGov poll showed that Trump’s approval rating fell 5 points in a single week, from 40% to 35%, erasing five consecutive weeks of gains in the same poll. The drop left the president just 2 points above the lowest rating he’s ever recorded in the survey.

A Sept. 23 NPR/PBS News/Marist poll saw Trump with 39% approving his job and 53% strongly disapproving, the highest share of Americans during either of Trump’s terms. The poll found independents favor Democrats for Congress 57% to 32% and 54% of independents describe their congressional vote as a vote against Trump.

Morris said national, state, and local polls, record Democratic turnout in primaries, and the perceptions about the economy and the war all line up as strong predictors of Democratic wins.

“Of course, there’s always some worry of overstating either side, any potential victory, which everyone has a right to do. They’ve been wrong before,” Morris said. “But when the data is pointing in the same direction, then that warrants a certain level of confidence.”

Trump’s polling averages

While individual polls may vary, major polling averages continue to put Trump in negative territory overall:

Republicans’ remaining hopes

Republican pollster Daron Shaw, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said Trump’s approval rating among registered voters and likely voters hovers around the high 30s and low 40s.

“I take it that he’s closer to 40%,” said Shaw, who is on Fox News’ Decision Desk and conducts Fox News polls with Democrat Chris Anderson. “If the dam would break, and the average across those reputable polls gets closer to 35-36%, then I think it presents a challenging environment broadly for Republicans.”

But Shaw conceded Trump is a drag on some Republican candidates in competitive races.

“A lot of Republicans are walking around with a weighted vest because of Trump’s low approval numbers,” Shaw said.

For example, in Michigan’s pivotal Senate race, a Sept. 22 Suffolk University poll has Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor and former public health official, leading Republican and former congressman Mike Rogers 47% to 40% in a contest largely driven by opposition to Trump. Nearly half of the likely voters in Michigan surveyed said they were casting their ballot “to change the direction President Trump is leading the nation.” That 48% dwarfed the 20% who want to support Trump.

And in Texas’ crucial Senate battle, a Sept. 23 Marist poll shows Democrat James Talarico leading Trump-endorsed Republican Ken Paxton among registered voters, 50% to 44% — outside the poll’s 4.4-percentage-point margin of error. By nearly a two-to-one margin, Texas voters polled are more likely to say that their congressional vote is mostly against Trump than in support of him.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that only 17% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living and only 34% of voters approve of Trump’s war against Iran.

Democrats need to maintain all their Senate seats and flip four Republican seats as Trump’s declining popularity comes just weeks before early voting begins in many states.

“Voters aren’t going to blame themselves for their own challenges, and they will always blame the people in office if their budget is stretched or the quality of their lives has declined,” pollster David Paleologos, director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center, told USA TODAY. “If there’s some blame to give, people can’t vote against Trump, but they can sure send a message through his party’s candidates that they are not happy.

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