Trump's approval rating plunges to 'extremely rare' level as midterm message flatlines

Matthew Chapman
October 1, 2026 
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U.S. President Donald Trump looks at media members after returning to the White House from Scotland, Britain, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

President Donald Trump's handling of inflation has become a defining liability of his presidency, with new polling showing roughly 8 in 10 Americans disapproving of his approach to the cost of living.

A new AP-NORC poll released Thursday found Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of cost-of-living issues by a staggering 82 percent to 17 percent margin. Reuters-Ipsos and Marquette Law School polls also put his approval in the high teens, while Marquette and CNN separately found disapproval at 80 percent. Such a level of unity against the president, wrote CNN's Aaron Blake, is "extremely rare" in American politics.

Even within Trump's own coalition, cracks are showing, with at least half of Republicans disapproving across four separate polls, 29% of self-identified MAGA Republicans souring on his handling per Fox News polling, and between 63 percent and 72 percent of white voters without college degrees, historically among his strongest supporters, expressing disapproval as well.

Few issues in recent presidential history have generated this kind of consensus. Economic troubles came close for past presidents; George W. Bush faced heavy criticism over the 2008 financial crash, and Jimmy Carter dealt with similar backlash amid runaway inflation and unemployment decades earlier, but neither reached quite the same depths Trump is seeing now.

Past scandals offer a similar contrast. Ronald Reagan weathered serious backlash over Iran-Contra, and Richard Nixon faced widespread public anger during Watergate, yet both stayed below the threshold Trump has now crossed on economic frustration alone. Even Gerald Ford's deeply controversial decision to pardon Nixon didn't generate disapproval this severe.

The closest Trump himself previously came to matching these numbers was over his decision to pardon violent January 6 defendants, which also fell a few points short of where his inflation numbers sit now.

Despite the historic unpopularity, Trump pushed back in a new Time magazine interview published Thursday, insisting Americans shouldn't blame him for affordability struggles and pointing fingers at Biden instead, even though inflation is currently running higher than when Trump took office. Polling suggests that messaging isn't landing: a clear majority of Americans hold Trump's own policy choices responsible for today's high prices, a far larger share than blamed Biden's policies at a similar point before the 2022 midterms.