President Donald Trump’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest point in his second term thus far, according to an average of polls, mimicking numbers that have not been seen since he left office in 2021, after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Approximately 58 percent of people say they do not approve of the job the president is doing, while just 39 percent say they do approve of his performance, according to the New York Times, which averages recent selected polls.
It marks the first time the president’s approval rating has sunk below 40 percent since he reclaimed the White House last year. The last time the president saw his approval rating dip so low was in January 2021, right after a mob of his supporters violently attacked the Capitol, according to Gallup.
The polling slump comes amid the president’s war in Iran, which has pushed up U.S. gas and oil prices; his failed tariff policy which raised consumer prices and strained small businesses; and his attempts to expand his authority to revoke birthright citizenship.
The White House pushed back on the poor numbers. “The ultimate poll was November 5th 2024 when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement to The Independent.
“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. The President has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect,” Ingle added.
The new findings also indicate the public grew dissatisfied with the president at a faster pace than during his first term. In April 2018, Trump’s approval rating sat around 40 percent, per Gallup.
But the president’s intervention in the Middle East, that has led to an eight-week-long conflict with Iran, appears to be his Achilles heel.
Some right wingers and conservatives who once championed the president - former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, podcast host Candace Owens and podcaster Megyn Kelly - have abandoned the president’s platform in the wake of the Iran war.
The war has driven up U.S. gas prices to $4 per gallon on average for the first time since August 2022. Airlines have warned that increasing jet fuel prices could lead to fewer flights or more expensive tickets.
Inflation has ticked up 3.3 percent between March 2025 and March 2026.
Consumer prices went up 2.4 percent between January 2025 and January 2026, according to the Consumer Price Index. That includes food at home, which ticked up more than 2 percent. Some of that increase is associated with Trump’s sweeping global tariffs on nearly every single one of the U.S.’s trading partners.
While the economy is a top concern for most voters, there are other controversies in the Trump administration that have alienated former MAGA allies.
Last year, former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the president’s most ardent supporters in Congress, broke with Trump on his refusal to release the Epstein files – the documents associated with the government’s investigation into late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Survivors of Epstein’s sex abuse have blasted his handling of the release, which was riddled with redaction errors.
While Trump’s immigration agenda still resonates with many of his supporters, his harsh deportations and aggressive enforcement has led to outrage – particularly after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens earlier this year in Minnesota.
The New York Times' average poll findings are consistent with other polls.
An NBC News / SurveyMonkey poll found that 63 percent of people disapprove of Trump’s job as president. A Fox News poll was slightly more generous, determining that 58 percent of people disapprove of the president. A CNBC All-America Economic Survey found that 60 percent of people disapprove of Trump’s handling of his job.
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