Trump Approval Holds at 32%, Near Career Low, Poll Finds

President Donald Trump's approval rating has held at 32 percent, near the lowest level of his political career, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday. The survey, conducted after the Republican Party's heavy defeat in last week's midterm elections, found that deep public concern over rising prices continues to drag on the president's standing with voters.

Official White House portrait of President Donald Trump. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll puts his approval rating at 32%, near the lowest of his political career. (White House photo)

The poll offers the first national read on the president's standing since voters delivered their verdict on November 3, handing Democrats control of both chambers of Congress. For a White House that spent the fall arguing the economy was turning a corner, the numbers suggest voters have not been persuaded.

The Numbers Behind the Poll

Some 32 percent of Americans approve of Trump's performance in the White House, according to the Reuters/Ipsos survey, unchanged from two prior Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted between late October and early November. The rating sits just one percentage point above his 31 percent showing in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in mid-October, the lowest of his career in politics.

The poll was conducted online nationwide from November 6 to 9 and gathered responses from 1,705 U.S. adults. It carries a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

The stability of the number is itself the story. Three consecutive Reuters/Ipsos surveys have now put the president at the same 32 percent mark, suggesting his support has settled at a low floor rather than bouncing back after the election.

Other polling released around the same time points in the same direction. According to USA Today, the RealClearPolitics average put Trump's approval rating at 38.9 percent on Monday, compared with 59.2 percent disapproval, while the New York Times polling average showed him at 37 percent approval and 60 percent disapproval. A separate Economist/YouGov survey released on November 7 put his approval at 36 percent, down three percentage points from its October 29 survey.

A Midterm Rebuke

The poll landed six days after an election that reshaped American politics. Trump's Republican Party suffered a staggering defeat in the November 3 midterm elections, losing control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress. With some races still undecided, Democrats scored their biggest victory in the House of Representatives since at least 2008, while flipping Senate seats in traditionally conservative states including Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.

Reuters tied the result directly to the economy, reporting that national concerns over rising prices "tanked" the Republican Party in the midterms. An NBC News exit poll cited by USA Today found that 75 percent of midterm voters said the economy was either "poor" or "not so good" — a damning verdict on the issue voters consistently rank as their top concern.

The scale of the defeat has already forced a reckoning inside the Republican Party. In his first major interview since the election, aired on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Trump acknowledged that his deportation policy "might be too tough" and floated the possibility of an immigration deal with Democrats. Vice President JD Vance has argued publicly that the war in Iran and the resulting rise in gasoline prices helped drive the losses.

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally. Voters' worries about rising prices were a major factor in the Republican Party's midterm losses, according to the poll. (File photo)

The Cost of Living Problem

The poll's issue-by-issue breakdown shows just how much the cost of living is weighing on the president. Only 21 percent of Americans give Trump a thumbs-up on his management of the cost of living, according to Reuters — the weakest of any issue measured in the survey.

Americans give his overall economic stewardship only slightly better marks, at 25 percent. That is a striking figure for a president who campaigned on restoring prosperity and who has repeatedly pointed to strong growth figures as proof his policies are working. The U.S. economy grew 3.4 percent in the third quarter, according to figures cited in recent inflation coverage, yet voters' lived experience of prices appears to be telling a different story.

The war launched by the president on Iran in February has added to the pressure. Reuters reported that the conflict has raised fuel prices sharply and weighed on household finances, and that Trump's low rating on the issue has also hurt his allies in Congress. The connection between the war, gasoline prices and the midterm result has become a central argument in the post-election debate within the Republican Party, with the vice president among those citing it as a factor in the losses.

Inflation remains stubbornly above the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. The most recent consumer price report showed headline prices rising 3.7 percent over the year to September, and the October inflation report due on Tuesday is expected to show a monthly increase of 0.3 percent, with core prices forecast to rise 0.2 percent, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

Immigration Remains His Strongest Issue

If the economy is Trump's weakest front, immigration remains his strongest. The poll found that 38 percent of Americans approve of his handling of immigration policy — considerably higher than the 25 percent who approve of his economic stewardship, and the 21 percent who back his handling of the cost of living.

The gap is even wider inside his own party. Some 81 percent of Republicans in the poll supported Trump's immigration approach, compared with just 50 percent who did so on the cost of living. That 31-point split captures the political bind the president now faces: his base remains firmly behind his signature policy, even as the same voters grow uneasy about prices.

Trump has aggressively ramped up deportations of immigrants since he returned to the White House in January 2025, and last week he promoted Stephen Miller, a key architect of those policies, to be the new White House chief of staff. Miller began his first day in the role on Monday, replacing Susie Wiles, who resigned last week — the same day Trump told "60 Minutes" that his deportation policy might have gone too far, leaving even the president's allies unsure which direction the White House will take next.

What This Means

The poll's message is blunt: the president's political problems are concentrated in the one area voters care about most. A 32 percent overall approval rating is bad enough on its own, but the 21 percent figure on the cost of living is the number that should worry the White House most, because it suggests the problem is not just partisan opposition — it is a broad judgment that daily life has become harder under this administration.

The comparison with immigration is instructive. On the issue Trump has made the centerpiece of his presidency, he is 13 points stronger than on the economy. That suggests voters are not rejecting the president wholesale; they are rejecting his handling of the issue that hits their wallets.

For Republicans, the numbers frame the central question of the lame-duck session and beyond: whether to keep defending a record voters have just rejected, or to break with the president on the economy while standing by him on immigration. Congress returned to Capitol Hill on Monday for the lame-duck session, with government funding set to expire on December 11, and the party's internal debate is now being conducted in public.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections. (File photo)

What Happens Next

The immediate test comes on Tuesday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the October consumer price index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists expect headline prices to have risen 0.3 percent on the month, down from 0.6 percent in September, with core prices up 0.2 percent. It will be the last inflation report before the Federal Reserve decides on interest rates on December 9, and markets currently put the odds of a December move at 85 percent, according to CME FedWatch.

A softer-than-expected reading could give the White House something it has lacked for months: a credible claim that price pressures are easing. A hotter reading would do the opposite, reinforcing the narrative that has now cost the president his congressional majorities.

Beyond the data, the political calendar is crowded. Congress faces a December 11 funding deadline, with the threat of another government shutdown if no deal is reached, and Representative Thomas Massie is expected to force a vote this week on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war.

Whether any of that moves the needle on the president's standing is an open question. Three straight polls at 32 percent suggest the public has made up its mind for now. What happens next will depend on whether prices start falling — and whether voters believe the president when he says they will.