Trump’s Approval Rating Hits Record Low Across Both Terms As Midterms Near - Newsweek

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has hit a record low as the midterms loom, new polling from the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago shows.

The nationwide poll shows that 31 percent of respondents approved of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 69 percent disapproved. This figure marks his lowest in either of his presidential terms.

Trump began his second term in office with a 50.5 percent approval rating and a 44.3 percent disapproval, but his approval rating has continually slipped since.

Figures from Civiqs' rolling tracking poll of registered voters captured as of September 28 show the president is underwater in 39 states and every major battleground state.

Civiqs gives Trump a net approval rating in 10 states: Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and West Virginia.

Meanwhile, Civiqs puts the president’s overall approval rating at 34 percent.

In a statement to Newsweek over email, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said: “No one can dispute the fact that President Trump has created one of the most robust coalitions in political history with the MAGA movement, and the President understands how to communicate with them. President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress."

It comes at a pivotal time for the GOP ahead of the midterms.

All 435 seats in the House and 35 seats in the Senate are up for grabs in November.

To win the Senate, Democrats need to win 17 seats while Republicans need 20.

218 seats are required to take control of the House. Republicans currently have a slim majority in the House – 219 to 213.

The midterm elections could alter the rest of the course of Trump’s presidency and could reshape how the administration proceeds with its legislative priorities if Republicans are to lose their majority in either chamber.

Traditionally, in midterm elections, the party that does not hold the White House has performed better.

"Since he's not on the ballot, the extent to which his numbers do or don't bode well for either party will depend on how much voters tie the candidates who are on the ballot to President Trump and the way he's been governing," Emily Alvarez, an analyst with NORC, told Newsweek.

Still, Trump has sought to tie himself closely to the election. During a September appearance in Dallas, he urged supporters to "pretend" he was on the ballot as Republicans look to hold their House and Senate majorities.

Beyond the president’s approval rating, the poll looked at key issues for the U.S. electorate before they head out to the polls.

It showed that Americans are frustrated with the president over the cost of living and hold him responsible for elevated prices. 65 percent of adults said that Trump’s policies are the cause of higher-than-usual prices, and 69 percent of the public said that his handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.

The majority of Americans – 73 percent – said that the country was heading in the wrong direction, and 46 percent said that their families were worse off since the beginning of Trump’s second term in office.

The president's polling on immigration – previously his strongest issue – was stronger; 48 percent said that his handling of immigration had gone worse than expected, 23 percent said that it had gone better and his approval rating on the overall issue is steady at 39 percent.

That figure though is a dip from when Trump returned to office, when 48 percent of Americans approved of his handling of immigration, according to IPSOS polling.

Hardline immigration policies were key in Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House and have been a defining feature of his administrative agenda, but high-profile fallouts, including protests, backlash over Operation Metro Surge in January of 2026 and concerns over deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody have impacted public opinion.

The war in Iran proved unpopular in polling, with seventy-one percent of adults disapproving of how Trump has handled the situation and 69 percent stating that it has not been worth fighting.

Those findings come as the U.S. and Iran remain locked in a standoff despite a June agreement that sought to ease tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Both sides have exchanged military strikes in recent weeks, which has in turn raised questions about the conflict and whether it is winding down or entering a prolonged new phase.

The poll was conducted September 24-28 using a NORC probability-based panel, and interviews were conducted with 2,140 respondents, with a +/-2.9 percent margin of error.

Ingle told Newsweek "The President signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, sealed the border, drove violent crime to the lowest level in nearly a century, unleashed an energy revolution, added more than a million private-sector jobs, and sent Americans’ 401(k)s climbing to record highs.

"The choice has never been more clear: doubling down on President Trump’s winning, commonsense agenda or the Democrats’ extreme liberal policies and obstruction.”

He had previously told Newsweek in response to inquiries about polling that almost 80 million Americans who voted for Trump gave him a mandate to "deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda."

"No other President in history has accomplished more for the American people than President Trump, who is working tirelessly to create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability, and more," Ingle added.

The midterm elections are on November 3, 2026.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Cristina Diciu.