A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted September 17-20, 2026 put Trump's approval at 32%, which Ipsos calls “a low point in Reuters/Ipsos polling fielded across his first and second presidency.” It was 35% a week earlier. The Hill reports his disapproval at 66%, up 25 points since the start of his second term, when the same poll had his approval at 47% “in the hours after he was sworn in.” Reuters notes that the new figure “is lower than any recorded for his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden,” whose low in the series “was 35%, reached in late October 2024.” The poll surveyed 1,277 adults on Ipsos's probability-based KnowledgePanel, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 points.
The erosion is coming from his own party and from prices. “The share of Republicans approving of Trump's overall job performance declined from 86% in January 2026 to 73%,” Ipsos reports, and among Republicans his approval fell “from 80% to 56% on the U.S. economy and 70% to 44% on the cost of living.” Reuters: “Just 17% of respondents in the new poll approved of his handling of the cost of living,” and “Now for the first time, Republicans who disapprove of Trump's handling of the cost of living outnumber those who give him a thumbs up - 51% to 44%.” Reuters ties the shift to the Iran war, which “has pushed gasoline and diesel prices sharply higher”; “Only 34% of the most recent poll respondents approve of the strikes on Iran.”
The political stakes showed in the generic ballot: registered voters “picked Democrats over Republicans - 43% to 35%” for the midterms, “the biggest lead for Democrats in Reuters/Ipsos polling this year.”
One poll is not the whole picture. The Decision Desk HQ polling average, per The Hill, had Trump at 38.8% approval and 59.7% disapproval the same evening. A separate American Research Group poll put him at 29%, which Newsweek headlined as below 30% “For First Time Ever”; the University of Virginia's Kyle Kondik told Newsweek, “This poll is an outlier, as others are not as bleak for the president.” The Reuters/Ipsos reading is the more significant because it is the low in a long-running series with the same method. Earlier readings: Trump Approval Craters to 33% as a Retired Air Force Captain Who Voted for Him Calls Him 'A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' and Trump's Approval on Cost of Living Hits Negative 40 Points and Falls Off the Bottom of a Pollster's Tracking Chart.