Updated Oct. 18, 2026, 2:17 p.m. ET
Nearly 3 in 4 Americans think the country is on the “wrong track” under President Donald Trump, according to a new poll, with just weeks to go until the 2026 midterm elections.
A new NBC News Decision Desk poll – taken with SurveyMonkey – found that 71% of adults think the country is on the “wrong track,” which marks the highest margin of Trump’s second term.
Trump’s approval rating fell to 34% among U.S. adults, a second-term low in NBC polling, while his disapproval rating sat at 66 percent. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s performance, a second-term high.
Still, Trump’s approval rating ticked up in the poll among registered voters: 39% approve of his job performance while 61% disapprove.
The overall results roughly reflect other new lows recorded in a Washington Post-ABC News poll, also released Oct. 18, and a Fox News poll released Oct. 14.
The surveys come as Trump and congressional Republicans could face headwinds on Election Day, Nov. 3, because midterms are typically rockier for the president’s party. For example, Democrats gained 41 seats in the House and flipped two Senate seats in Arizona and Nevada in the 2018 “blue wave” during Trump’s first term.
Republicans are on defense in a series of Senate races this year including in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Fifty-five percent of registered voters in the NBC survey said they would choose Democrats over Republicans to control Congress during the final years of Trump’s second term.
But Americans hold a negative view about both of the nation’s main political parties. Forty-three percent of adults view the Democratic Party favorably, compared to 57% unfavorably. And 37% of respondents view Republicans favorably while 63% hold an unfavorable view.
The NBC News Decision Desk poll surveyed 19,135 adults from Sept. 28 to Oct. 12. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.
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