President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have fallen in a series of national polls, with the latest surveys showing broad dissatisfaction and fresh erosion on issues that once anchored his political standing. The most recent Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted from Sept. 30 through Oct. 5, 2026, while a late-September AP-NORC poll found only 31% of U.S. adults approved of how Trump is handling the presidency.
The decline is not a one-day swing. Polling from AP-NORC, Pew Research Center and Gallup shows a longer slide across 2026, with losses among independents and weaker ratings on the economy, cost of living and foreign policy.
New October and late-September polls show the drop
The newest Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Oct. 5, was based on a nationally representative sample of 4,506 adults interviewed from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5. Ipsos said the survey examined views of Trump and the 2026 midterm elections, though the topline release posted publicly did not itself list a headline overall approval number in the summary page.
A late-September AP-NORC poll did. In interviews conducted Sept. 24 to 28 among 2,140 adults, AP-NORC found that 31% approved of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 69% disapproved. That was down from 33% approval in AP-NORC’s July 23 to 27 poll, 37% in mid-June and 40% in early January.
The same AP-NORC survey found deeper trouble on pocketbook issues. Just 26% approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, 73% disapproved, and only 17% approved of his handling of the cost of living, while 82% disapproved. On immigration, his stronger issue by comparison, approval was 39%, unchanged from July but still underwater.
The weakness is not limited to overall job approval. AP-NORC reported that 71% disapproved of Trump’s handling of Iran, and 69% said the war in Iran has not been worth fighting. In that same survey, 69% said Trump’s handling of the cost of living had gone worse than they expected, compared with 7% who said better than expected.
Pew Research Center reported in August that Trump’s job approval had declined over the course of his second term and was low by historical standards. Pew said its July 6 to 12 survey found Trump’s standing comparable to, but modestly lower than, Joe Biden’s 37% rating in the summer of 2022.
Pew also found slippage inside Trump’s own coalition. Republican and Republican-leaning approval fell to 69% in July 2026, down from 84% in February 2025. Reuters/Ipsos separately reported in September that the share of Republicans approving of Trump’s overall job performance had dropped from 86% in January 2026 to 73% in a Sept. 17 to 20 survey.
The clearest throughline in the recent polling is the cost of living. Reuters/Ipsos reported in September that Republican approval of Trump’s handling of the U.S. economy fell from 80% to 56%, while GOP approval of his handling of the cost of living dropped from 70% to 44%. AP-NORC found most Americans now blame Trump for higher prices.
There is also evidence that independents have peeled away over time. AP-NORC said in a June 2026 analysis that support for Trump among independents younger than 60 had fallen since the election, and that support among independent men and women had dropped from about 4 in 10 during the election and pre-presidency period to around a quarter during the Iran war period.
Gallup’s trend line points in the same direction. Gallup said Trump’s second-term approval had slipped to a new low point and was approaching his all-time low of 34%. With the Nov. 3, 2026, midterm elections approaching, the next test is not whether the polling is soft. It already is. The open question is whether Trump and down-ballot Republicans can stop the slide before votes are cast.