WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s political standing has fallen to its weakest point of his presidency, with a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showing only one in three Americans approving of his
performance in the White House.
The survey, completed on Monday, found that 33% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, while 64% disapprove. His approval rating has slipped from 35% earlier this month and is now the lowest recorded during his second term.
The figure also matches the lowest approval rating Trump registered during his first presidency, when his support fell to 33% in December 2017.
The decline comes as Americans grow increasingly uneasy about the US military campaign against Iran. Four out of five respondents said they expect American involvement in the conflict to continue for an extended period, a view shared across party lines.
Some 80% of those surveyed believe the war will last longer than originally expected, including 87% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans. Only 16% believe the conflict is likely to end within weeks.
The findings pose a growing political problem for Trump, who returned to the White House in 2025 promising to control inflation and steer the United States away from prolonged foreign wars.
Instead, his decision to join Israel in military strikes against Iran has helped push energy prices higher, placing additional pressure on American households and creating a difficult political backdrop for Republicans ahead of November’s congressional elections.
Gas prices become a political liability
Trump has sought to persuade voters that the economic cost of the conflict is justified by the strategic objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Speaking at a rally in New York on Friday, he urged Americans to accept higher petrol prices as part of the price of confronting Tehran.
But the message comes as households are already feeling the impact of higher fuel costs. The conflict has disrupted a major artery of global energy trade, with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely constrained.
Trump initially suggested that the confrontation with Iran could be resolved within weeks. The resilience of the Iranian government and continuing disruption to energy shipments have made such a timetable increasingly difficult to sustain.
The poll suggests that the public is far from convinced that the war has delivered sufficient benefits to justify its costs.
Only around one in five Americans said they believed the conflict had been worth fighting. Among Republicans, support was considerably stronger, but only about half said the war had been worthwhile.
The political consequences could extend beyond Trump himself.
Republicans are defending narrow majorities in Congress in the November 3 elections, while Democrats have begun to see opportunities to regain ground, particularly as voters focus on the economy and the cost of living.
Democrats gain ground on the economy
The latest polling also points to a broader shift in how Americans view the two parties on economic issues.
For the first time in roughly a decade, Democrats have moved ahead of Republicans as the party voters trust more to manage the economy.
In the latest survey, 38% said Democrats would handle the economy better, compared with 35% for Republicans. Democrats also held an advantage when voters were asked which party was better placed to address the rising cost of living.
Immigration remains one of the Republicans’ stronger issues, but even there their advantage has narrowed sharply.
Some 40% of registered voters said Republicans had the better approach to immigration, compared with 38% who preferred Democrats. The two-point Republican lead is the smallest recorded during Trump’s current presidency.
That represents a dramatic change from January 2025, when Republicans enjoyed a 26-point advantage on the issue.
Trump’s administration has presided over a sharp reduction in illegal border crossings and intensified immigration enforcement. But deadly confrontations, expanding detention and the detention of children have increasingly become sources of political controversy.
For Republicans, the latest figures suggest that the political environment heading into November may be considerably more difficult than it appeared when Trump began his second term.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted online among 1,166 US adults nationwide. Its margin of error was approximately three percentage points in either direction. Photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia commons.
