Trump’s popularity worsens with Iran ceasefire falling apart

While Trump’s popularity is low, his job approval and disapproval ratings had rested at 35% and 61%, respectively, in the previous Economist/YouGov poll over one month ago. The newest poll shows a slight improvement in those numbers.

The state of the U.S. economy has also been a sore point for Trump amid the prolonged Iran war. Just under 25% of respondents described the current state of the economy as excellent or good, compared with just over 70% of respondents who said otherwise.

Additionally, Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the future of the economy. The poll showed 53% of people saying the economy is getting worse, 17% believing it’s getting better, and 22% saying it will stay about the same.

The resumption of hostilities between the United States and Iran has caused significant spikes in oil prices, which translates to higher domestic gas prices and threatens the national economy’s health.

Besides the Iran war, the Trump administration has been dealing with backlash stemming from two fatal ICE-involved shootings within the past week. The public criticism it faces is similar to the deaths of two U.S. citizens during an immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota at the start of this year.

Trump is seemingly trying to divert attention from such problems by focusing on election integrity, which is supposed to be the topic during his nationwide address Thursday night, and delivering campaign-style speeches.

Trump’s lowest-ever approval rating was 29% at the end of his first term in January 2021 following the Capitol riot. The lowest approval rating for a president was Harry S. Truman, who sank to 22% in February 1952.

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Trump’s dismal approval numbers this year could help Democrats wrest power away from Republicans in Congress, depending on the outcome of the midterm elections. Democratic candidates in general polled 4 percentage points higher than their Republican counterparts in the survey. Furthermore, 44% of respondents favored the Democratic Party controlling the House instead of the Republican Party, which sat at 37%.

Republicans are at risk of losing the lower chamber in this year’s midterm elections, as the party holds a narrow majority. The GOP is also at risk of losing control over the Senate, but a favorable outcome for Democrats in the upper chamber is less certain.