Donald Trump’s Support Suffers Complete Reversal With Republicans - Newsweek

Republican allegiance has flipped since President Donald Trump returned to office, with 56 percent now identifying primarily with the GOP and 34 percent with the president, according to a Newsweek analysis of Echelon Insights polling.

In January 2025, 59 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents called themselves primarily supporters of Trump, according to an Echelon Insights survey, while 36 percent chose the Republican Party.

The latest figures reverse that order, with 34 percent calling themselves Trump supporters first and foremost and 56 percent aligning themselves with the GOP itself, suggesting the party label has recovered primacy inside the coalition that Trump once appeared to dominate.

Newsweek contacted the White House via email on Thursday morning for further comment and is awaiting a response to these findings.

The reversal comes weeks before the November 3 midterms, when Republican candidates must decide whether close association with Trump helps mobilize supporters or creates a wider electoral liability.

GOP campaigns in competitive races face the immediate consequences, particularly those balancing the president’s endorsement against voter concerns over policy and living costs.

The shift comes from two surveys by Echelon Insights using the same question: "Would you say you consider yourself to be primarily a supporter of Donald Trump, or a supporter of the Republican Party?"

In September 2026, 34 percent selected Donald Trump and 56 percent selected the party.

Another 7 percent said they supported neither, and 3 percent were unsure. The question was asked of 424 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.

Echelon surveyed 1,002 likely voters in the likely electorate from September 17 to 21.

The overall poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

The January 2025 result pointed in the opposite direction.

Some 59 percent then described themselves mainly as supporters of Trump, compared with 36 percent who put the Republican Party first. Five percent supported neither.

That earlier online survey questioned 1,024 voters in the likely electorate from January 22 to 24, with the sample matched to the L2 voter file.

Its overall margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and 464 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents received the allegiance question.

Taken together, the polls record a 45-point swing in the gap between the two options.

Trump led the party by 23 points shortly after his inauguration; the party now leads him by 22.

That is the clearest sense in which the result represents a complete reversal. Yet it does not establish that Republicans have become anti-Trump.

Respondents were asked which source of political identity came first, not whether they approved of the president or planned to oppose Republican candidates.

Echelon’s broader numbers underline that distinction.

Its September 2026 survey placed Trump’s job approval at 36 percent nationally and disapproval at 64 percent, giving a net approval rating (those who approve minus those who disapprove) of -28 percentage points.

The same poll gave Democratic congressional candidates a 51 percent to 43 percent lead after leaners were included.

Those national figures describe a difficult midterm environment, while the allegiance result identifies a separate pressure within the Republican coalition: the party’s voters may increasingly see the GOP as larger and more durable than its current leader.

Trump has urged Republicans to approach the midterms as though he were on the ballot.

That strategy is designed to reproduce the turnout generated by his presidential campaigns.

But not all candidates have followed the same course.

Some Republicans have challenged the administration over the Iran war, immigration enforcement, tariffs or presidential war powers.

Iowa Senatorial candidate Ashley Hinson has called for the Iran war to end and criticized lower-tariff beef imports, while Representative María Elvira Salazar of Florida has questioned Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Meanwhile, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Senator Susan Collins of Maine are among those to back efforts to restrict unauthorized military action.

Others have reduced Trump’s prominence in campaign messaging while continuing to support him.

Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, for example, removed several prominent references to the president from his campaign homepage while retaining Trump’s endorsement elsewhere on the site.

Those moves do not constitute a coordinated revolt.

They do, however, fit the incentives revealed by the Echelon data.

A candidate can still want the president’s voters while presenting the Republican Party, local priorities or a personal record as the stronger reason to turn out.

Recent national polling shows the competing forces.

A CBS News/YouGov survey of 2,460 U.S. adults, conducted from September 8 to 11 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points, found 45 percent of likely voters said their congressional vote would be in opposition to Trump.

Twenty-eight percent said it would be in support of him, while 27 percent said their choice was not about the president.

That finding helps explain why making Trump the centerpiece of every Republican race presents both an opportunity and a risk.

His personal coalition remains important to GOP turnout, but opposition to him can motivate a larger group.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Newsweek previously that the 2024 election was the "ultimate poll," arguing that nearly 80 million Americans backed Trump’s agenda.

Ingle added that the president had made "historic progress" on jobs, inflation and housing affordability, with further effects still to come.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.