Americans are increasingly saying the country is moving the wrong way with Donald Trump in charge, and new polls show that concern spreading inside his own party. Republicans are still Trump’s strongest support, but more of them now say the country is off course, which could sap energy heading into 2026.
A September Verasight poll found that only 28 percent of adults think the U.S. is “on the right track,” while 60 percent say it is “off on the wrong track.” Another 12 percent said they were unsure. That is a noticeable drop from August, when the split was 33 percent to 57 percent. Gallup also reports a slide, with just 29 percent satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S., the lowest level since Trump took office in January. That is down from 31 to 33 percent over the summer and well below the 38 percent peak in May. Satisfaction had been ticking up after the inauguration on a wave of Republican optimism, but the new numbers suggest that confidence is fraying.
Gallup shows the sharpest dip among Republicans, with satisfaction falling to 68 percent in September from 76 percent in August. Independents hold at 23 percent and Democrats at 1 percent. AP NORC tells a similar story. The share of Republicans who say the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction jumped from 29 percent in June to 51 percent in September. Among Republicans under 45, that number leapt by 30 points to 61 percent.
These polls follow the September 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an event that appears to have rattled Republicans and sped up doubts about the country’s path. Quinnipiac found that 79 percent of voters believe the U.S. is in a political crisis, with Democrats at 93 to 6 percent, independents at 84 to 14 percent, and Republicans at 60 to 35 percent.
Gallup says the fallout also shifted what people see as the top national problem. Mentions of crime or violence rose from 3 percent in August to 8 percent in September, the highest in five years. Concern about national unity doubled from 5 percent to 10 percent, the highest since the aftermath of January 6. Republicans drove most of the rise on crime, jumping from 6 percent to 14 percent, while independents fueled the spike on unity, moving from 5 percent to 13 percent. YouGov reports that 59 percent of adults think political violence is a very big problem, including 58 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of independents, and 67 percent of Republicans.
Republicans responded with near uniform outrage and grief to Kirk’s killing. Trump called the death a “dark moment for America” and praised him as “a tremendous person.” He ordered flags to fly at half staff and said Kirk would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.
At a memorial service in Arizona, he hailed Kirk as a “martyr for American freedom” and blamed the “radical left” for a hostile climate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senator Mike Lee praised Kirk’s influence and condemned the violence. Vice President JD Vance urged supporters to see the killing as part of a broader cultural battle.
Peter Loge told Newsweek the tone from the top is part of the problem. “One reason so many voters think the country is heading in the wrong direction is because the president keeps telling voters everything is terrible. The loudest conservative voices are telling voters that the nation is badly broken and that anyone who disagrees with them is evil. It would be shocking if voters, especially Republican voters, thought things were going well when the loudest voices say everything is going wrong,” Loge said.
He added that the recent results are “very bad news for Republican politicians.” “Most voters mostly want things to work. If voters don’t think things are working, they tend to fire the people in charge and elect new people. The president and a lot of his allies are in charge, and are saying nothing works. The result could be that voters agree and send the Republicans in charge home in the next election,” he said.
Pollster Matt McDermott agreed, reportedly saying the results “really show a warning siren for Trump,” and added, “Even within his own base, Republicans are growing uneasy about the direction of the country — not just on the economy, but on something deeper: political violence and instability. This is not what voters, even those who supported Trump, signed up for.”
