Trump’s Approval Rating On The Economy Hits All-Time Low

Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
 Wed, September 30, 2026 


Topline

President Donald Trump's approval rating on the economy and Iran slid to record lows in a new poll released this week, while a second poll found his approval rating during his second term dipped back to its record-low point of 42%.

President Donald Trump arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, in the early hours of September 23, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)
Timeline

Sept. 29Trump had a 34% approval rating and 61% disapproval rating in the latest Quinnipiac poll of 1,032 registered voters surveyed Sept. 24-27 (margin of error 3.8).

His 31% approval rating on the economy is an all-time low for both terms, and his 28% approval rating on his handling of the situation in Iran ties his all-time low reached in a July 29 Quinnipiac poll.

Sept. 29Trump's 42% approval rating in a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll matches his second-term low reached in April and July this year and is a two-point decline from the groups' last poll in August (the latest survey of 2,200 registered voters was conducted Sept. 26-28 and has a margin of error of 2.1).

Sept. 24Trump's 39% approval rating is a one-point decline from last month, and his disapproval rating has increased two points, to 58%, in the latest Emerson College poll of 1,000 likely voters taken Sept. 21-22 (margin of error 3).

Trump's approval rating initially hit a low of 39% in Emerson polling in May, then climbed to 40% in August.

The poll also found 53% of respondents said they would vote for the Democratic congressional candidate in their district in midterms, while 42% said they would vote for the Republican.

Sept. 23Trump's 33% approval rating is a new low point for either of his terms, according to CNN/SSRS polling, and is three points below what it was at this point during his first term in 2018, while 67% disapprove of his job performance, compared to 58% in September 2018 (the latest poll of 1,206 U.S. adults was taken Sept. 16-17 and has a margin of error 3.8).

Trump's approval rating on the economy is 22 points below what it was in September 2018, and Americans' view of the economy generally is 41 points worse.

Sept. 23Trump had a 39% approval rating and 53% disapproval rating in the latest PBS/NPR/Marist poll, an improvement from his 38%/59% rating in June (the poll of 1,280 registered voters was taken Sept. 14-15 and has a margin of error of 3.8).

The poll found Democrats have a 12-point advantage in the race for Congress, with 53% saying they would vote for the Democratic House candidate in their district, compared to 41% who said they would vote for the Republican.

Sept. 21Trump's approval rating reached a new low point, 32%, across both of his terms in another poll, from Reuters/Ipsos, that found approval of his job performance among Republicans has declined from 86% in January to 73% (the survey of 1,277 adults was conducted Sept. 17-20 and has a margin of error of 2.8).

Sept. 6Trump's 33% approval rating in a Financial Times/Focaldata poll is his lowest since the groups began asking the question in May and is down three points from last month (the survey of 1,914 registered voters was conducted Aug. 28-Sept. 1 and has a margin of error of 2.6).

The poll found his support among Republican voters has dipped two points, to 72%, a low point.

Negative views of Trump's handling of the economy appear to be continuing to drive down his poll numbers—-with 57% of voters saying they are financially worse off under Trump, compared to 53% last month.

Meanwhile, a plurality of voters, 46%, said Trump is making it harder for Republicans to win in November, and a plurality, 43%, also said his endorsement of a candidate would make them less likely to vote for that candidate.

Sept. 6Trump's 36% approval rating in the latest NBC News survey is one point below what it was in April, a record low in the groups' polling during Trump's second term.

The poll also found a significant decline in his support among his base—41% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump's job performance, down from 52% in the spring, and 62% of self-identified MAGA Republicans support him, down from 71% in the spring (the online survey of 7,105 adults was taken Aug. 20-Sept. 1 and has a margin of error of 3.3).

The share of Republicans who say they strongly approve of Trump's handling of the Iran war has also dropped 18 points, to 30%, and has declined 21 points among MAGA Republicans, to 43%.

Sept. 2Trump's approval rating increased from 42% in July to 44% in a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released Wednesday, while 52% of respondents disapprove of his job performance (the poll of 2,100 registered voters was taken Aug. 28-30 and has a margin of error of 2.1).

Mood has improved slightly since July—37% said the country is on the right track, compared to 35% in July, and 52% said it's on the wrong track, down from 55% in July, while the share of voters who said the economy is strong is up two percentage points and the share who said it's weak is down two points.

Still, a plurality of voters, 47%, said their financial situation is getting worse, a one percentage point increase from July, 32% said it's getting better (down two points from July) and 21% said it's the same.

The poll found Democrats have a slight advantage in the midterms, with 51% saying they'd likely vote for a Democrat if their congressional election were held today, compared to 49% who'd prefer a Republican, while 54% of independents said they plan to vote for Democrats, compared to 46% who leaned Republican.

Sept. 2Trump's 33% approval rating—his lowest ever in Reuters/Ipsos polling—is unchanged from the past two weeks in the groups' weekly survey of 1,167 U.S. adults taken Aug. 28-31 (margin of error of 2.9).

The poll reaffirmed the cost of living as the most important issue in the upcoming midterms, with a plurality (47%) saying it's their top concern, while Trump continues to log poor ratings on his handling of the economy—71% disapproval/22% approval.

Aug. 31Trump's approval rating has decreased one point, to 32%, since March, and his disapproval rating has increased two points, to 64%, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll of 1,000 respondents taken Aug. 21-26 (margin of error 3.5).

Trump's approval rating among Republicans has declined from 89% to 75% since April 2025, and his approval rating among 2024 Trump voters is down 10 points.


Just 25% of respondents said he is handling the war in Iran well, while 68% said he's not handling it well.

Aug. 24Trump's approval rating held at 33% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, unchanged from the groups' survey released Aug. 17, while his disapproval rating increased one point, to 65% (the survey of 1,215 adults was conducted Aug. 21-24 and has a margin of error of 3).

Just 31% support U.S. military action in Iran, down from 34% earlier this month and 37% in March.

The share of Americans who believe the Iran war will go on "for an extended period of time" increased to 83% from 80% earlier this month.



Aug. 17Trump's approval rating dipped to 33%, and his disapproval rating went up one point from earlier in August, to 64%, in the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey of 1,166 U.S. adults taken Aug. 14-17 (margin of error 3).

The poll found 80% of Americans, including 87% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans, think U.S. involvement in Iran "will go on for an extended period of time," while just 16% said it would likely end in a few weeks.

The survey also found that for the first time in about a decade, more voters, 38%, prefer Democrats to handle the economy versus Republicans (35%).

Aug. 16Trump had a 35% approval rating and 55% disapproval rating in a Financial Times/Focaldata poll of 1,913 registered voters conducted Aug. 7-10 (margin of error 2.9).



Trump's net approval rating among Republicans has dropped eight points since the groups' July survey, the Financial Times reported.

The poll comes as inflation cooled in July from June, but at 3.4%, it's still higher than when Trump took office as the war with Iran has driven up fuel costs and disrupted the economy.

Meanwhile, Democrats have a five percentage-point advantage over Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, according to the survey.
Surprising Fact

Trump's approval rating is similar to former President Joe Biden's at this point in his term. Biden had a 42% approval rating in August 2022, according to Gallup.
Big Number

40%. That was Trump's approval rating the week of Sept. 17-23, 2018, during his first term, according to Gallup.

Key Background

Trump began his second term with a 52% approval rating and 43% disapproval rating, according to The New York Times' polling average. He experienced a sharp drop in support with the announcement of his so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs in April last year, and again since the start of the Iran war at the end of February. Voters' economic concerns have remained high throughout Trump's second term, and the Iran war has coincided with an increase in negative views of the economy as gas prices have skyrocketed since the start of the conflict. Trump's sagging approval rating comes as Democrats are favored to regain control of the House, according to Cook Political Report, and pick up some seats in the Republican-dominated Senate.

INVOKING MARS & AIRES

Pete Hegseth Leads Hundreds Around Pentagon in ‘THIS IS WAR’ Shirts & Gets Mocked

Devanshi Basu
Wed, September 30, 2026 


Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Key takeaways

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a group of service members in a jogging loop around the Pentagon wearing shirts that read “THIS IS WAR,” sparking criticism from many who viewed it as performative

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laced up his running shoes this week and led hundreds of service members on an early-morning jogging loop around the Pentagon, all of them wearing identical shirts that read "THIS IS WAR." The Defense Department shared video of the run, and people responded with a wave of criticism aimed at what many called a performative display.

Critics mocked videos showing Pete Hegseth leading an early-morning military run

The department posted two videos showing Pete Hegseth jogging at the front of the pack outside the Pentagon. A third clip featured the secretary, at times audibly short of breath, addressing the troops who joined him. He invoked a motto he first introduced at Quantico.

 "Last year, when we gave a speech at Quantico—we launched the War Department golden rule: Do unto your formation that which you would have done unto your son or daughter's formation," Hegseth said, summing it up as "no games, no gimmicks, no low standards, and no excuses."

After the jogging session, Hegseth boarded a helicopter for the 33-mile trip from the Pentagon to Quantico, where he gave his annual "State of the Force" speech. However, critics seized on the "THIS IS WAR" apparel, pointing out that the Trump administration has repeatedly framed its conflict with Iran as something other than a war. As one X user wrote, "Thought we were trying to stay out of wars?" Another added, "If that's War, you're probably losing it."

The run fits a broader habit. Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, has repeatedly posted fitness videos since taking over the military's top civilian post, including clips of spin bike sessions, bench pressing, and pull-ups in a tree with Dr. Oz. He and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also drew ridicule for a joint push-up and pull-up video they branded "The Pete and Bobby Challenge."

7 takeaways from Hegseth’s address to officers: Warfare’s future, faith and a new base

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM AND KILLER ROBOTS 

WHAT COULD GO WRONG

Filip Timotija
Wed, September 30, 2026

THE /HILL

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a flurry of announcements during a wide-ranging speech to active-duty officers Wednesday.

At the beginning of the address, the Pentagon chief stuck to his bread and butter: culture-war grievances, stripping the "woke" out of the Department of Defense (DOD), bashing the news media for its coverage of the Iran war, and proclaiming the "warrior ethos" has been revived and the U.S. military has been "rebuilt."

But the Defense secretary made several newsy announcements that lean into Hegseth's elevation of faith, create a combatant command, partner the Pentagon with different universities and tease a new domestic military base for which governors will compete.

Here are the takeaways from Hegseth's 52-minute speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia:

New combatant command focused on autonomous warfare

Hegseth announced the formation of a new four-star combatant command focused on developing autonomous warfare like drones and defense robotics.

The Defense secretary said it would have "service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history," with the aim of being operational by Oct. 1 next year.

The Autonomous Warfare Command, or "AutoWarCom," will be initially led by Owen West, a former Marine who is now the director of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, and Max Strasiser, a Navy SEAL senior chief. Later, a four-star military leader will be announced.

"This command will possess directed manpower, budget, acquisition authorities and create dedicated military career pathways for Officers and Enlisted personnel," Hegseth said in a Wednesday memo.

The new command will test equipment and force designs with "realistic opposition" in exercises and rugged environments to figure out what works on the battlefield, the Defense secretary said in the memo.

Project Meridian and warfare's future

Hegseth revealed that SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will lead a new Pentagon effort to study the future of warfare, dubbed Project Meridian.

The Pentagon chief said the project is meant to harness America's innovators, senior leaders and technologists to look decades into the future and "forecast the creative solution for tomorrow's conflicts."

"It is futuristic on purpose," he said of the project, which he clarified was not meant to develop new strategies or policies.

"We should have the humility to recognize that the best forecasters of future conflict do not solely reside inside the Pentagon," Hegseth said. "There are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them."

Hegseth said Musk, Luckey and Gingrich, under the leadership of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, "will be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes, without any creative limitations or restrictions, on any future battlefield, from under the Earth to beyond the moon."

All three men were in attendance at the Pentagon as Hegseth made his announcement, and the Pentagon chief said their first meeting on Project Meridian would happen immediately following the event in a sensitive compartmented information facility in the building.

States invited to bid for 'next great American' base

Hegseth invited governors to bid for their state to be the home of the "next great American" base.

"We're calling on every governor in the country and adjutant general, every tag across this great republic, to step up to the plate and bring us their best sales pitch," the Defense secretary said.

"If your state wants the honor of hosting 15,000 to 25,000 of America's great troops, show us why and how you're going to do it, cutting through the red tape, offering up the land and rolling out the red carpet for our military families," he said during the speech.

Naval Station Everett in Washington state was the most recent base built inside the U.S., opening in the 1990s. The base is home to several guided-missile destroyers and Coast Guard ships.

Hegseth said the new base will not be a "soulless government installation," arguing the Pentagon will "plan out and chart out a dynamic, self-sustaining power projection platform."

The Pentagon said the base will be off the commercial grid, featuring independent power generation, autonomous systems and advanced air defenses.

"We're talking hundreds of thousands of acres with organic power generation, modern air defenses, and cutting-edge technology, think a fortress," the secretary said. Service members will have "first-class barracks, world-class training facilities, and thriving communities with top-tier housing, school, childcare and healthcare for families."

Hegseth directed Dale R. Marks, who is assistant secretary of Defense for energy, installations and environment, to lead the Pentagon's effort to identify, evaluate, select and prepare an optimal site for the base.

"Rapid advancements in disruptive technologies, growing strategic alignment among peer adversaries, and persistent, sophisticated cyber intrusions against critical defense and homeland infrastructure necessitate a modernized, resilient posture," the Defense secretary said in a Wednesday memo.

'Fortress America' takes bases off civilian grid

Another new initiative revealed Wednesday is "Fortress America," which Hegseth claimed will be "a national insurance policy for the American homeland.

Under Fortress, which stands for "Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy Supply and Survivability," every major military installation in America would generate its own power independent of the civilian grid, according to Hegseth.

"If an adversary takes down the grid by cyberattack, by sabotage, or by any means, our bases stay lit. Our aircraft keep flying. Our command centers never go dark," he said.

The effort also is meant to bring critical supply chains home, including rare earth minerals, specialty metals, semiconductors and propellants "mined in America, refined in America, built in America by American workers."

In addition, the Pentagon would build up strategic reserves of such critical needs as munitions, fuel, medicine and blood "deep enough that if the world's supply lines break — and in a real war, they're going to break — America keeps fighting anyway," Hegseth said.

To accomplish this, Hegseth said the U.S. military is "hardening every installation on American soil against cyber intrusion, sabotage and drones, and we're securing the high ground and the airwaves, our satellites, our spectrum," claiming that the DOD "will be the insurance policy for the entire nation."

New non-Ivy League partnerships for cadets

The Defense secretary also said the Pentagon will partner with five more colleges to broaden the corps of cadets.

The military training program, called "America's Corps of Cadets," will include Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College.

"We need more officers from academic institutions like our military academies and senior military colleges, and today we're going to make that happen," Hegseth said.

Each school will be a "distinguished military college" and will be expected to "maintain exceptionally high standards of cadet discipline, tactical instruction and military organization," the Pentagon chief said.

Military academies like West Point, Naval Academy and Air Force Academy commission most of the officers into the U.S. armed forces, followed by senior military colleges like Texas A&M and the Citadel.

Hegseth's office will begin implementation within 30 days, and within four months, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata will transition to become the primary office responsible for the program, according to a Wednesday Pentagon memo.

"From the Ivy Leagues to the most liberal arts colleges, our colleges and universities have become anti-American DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] worshipping woke factories. Qualities like grit and courage replaced with political correctness and social justice," Hegseth said. "God and country traded for Che Guevara and critical theory."

Creates Office of Religious Affairs

In his last proclamation, Hegseth declared he will establish the Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon that "will report straight to the top."

"Cutting-edge technology ... new basing and bases ... and a better educational pipeline are still incomplete without the most essential component of our republic: faith," he told the assembled service members.

He said the Defense Department has "a sacred duty" to provide troops with "first-class religious support" wherever they're sent, bashing past administrations for treating the topic as an afterthought.

"Political correctness and secular humanism got a vote. Chaplains did not. Budgets were cut. Resourcing and manpower needs were ignored. Base chapels fell apart," Hegseth claimed. "Decisions about faith and religion were made by secular careerists in cubicles and lawyers running around with red tape."

Starting Wednesday, the Office of Religious Affairs will have "a direct line to the secretary" and will "protect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support," he said.

Hegseth frequently invokes his faith and has declared service members' spiritual health as "equally important" as their physical and mental health.

Earlier this year he revamped the U.S. military's Chaplain Corps, announcing that the officers will no longer wear their rank insignia, instead displaying insignia that reflects their religious affiliation — part of two major changes to the group.

Hegseth defends officer cuts

At the start of his speech, Hegseth defended his plan to cut 20 percent of generals and admirals at the Pentagon, arguing the major shake-up was long overdue at the department.

"Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment," Hegseth said.

"You see, you can't change a culture with the same people who enabled it," he said. "Personnel is policy at every single level."

The move will impact senior leadership positions across the Army, Navy and the Air Force, coming a year after Hegseth oversaw a 10 percent reduction of general officers.

The move comes as he has already fired or pushed out more than two dozen senior military officers across the service branches, personnel changes that have unnerved congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

"You see, last year's speech was not for those generals," Hegseth said during the speech. "It was for you, the backbone of our force, the current and future leaders on the front lines."

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

 Airman Exposes Pentagon Pete’s Faith-Fueled Power Play

Laura Esposito
Sun, September 27, 2026


Daniel Heuer / REUTERS

Airmen are expressing "outrage" over Pete Hegseth's exclusion of atheism from a revamped list of religious identities service members can identify with.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for service members' constitutional right to religious freedom, shared excerpts from a letter it received from an airman who said he couldn't register as an atheist when directed to update his personal record.

"If my previous (withheld) years of service while being an atheist was good enough, why is it no longer?" the airman said in their statement on Saturday. As of Saturday afternoon, the MRFF said it had received 38 similar complaints, Military.com reported.

Trump has given Hegseth free rein in his war on wokeness. / Nathan Howard / REUTERS/Nathan Howard

The United States Air Force announced Friday that it was updating its data systems to "align" with the Defense Department's revamped list of Religious Affiliation codes. The public affairs office press release included a photo of a chaplain with a cross inscribed on his uniform.

A former military chaplain and devout Christian told Military.com that the photo of the chaplain's uniform made it "crystal clear" that the move was an "attempt to push Christianity onto the troops, and there's implicit intimidation there."

A chaplain assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing wears a cross on his chest. / Airman Ashton Hamby / 1st Special Operations Wing

"Our commitment to the spiritual readiness and religious freedom of every Airman and Guardian remains steadfast," Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said in a statement.


"I attempted to update my code this afternoon and to my outrage found that atheist is no longer an option, an option I have chosen for my previous [withheld] years of service," the airman wrote in a statement to the MRFF.

Under the system, atheists can choose "no religion" or "other religion," the airman wrote. "That is not the point," they continued.

"I along with many other service members, are atheists that do not believe in god," they said.

A Department of Defense spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.

Dozens of airmen and Guardians have also complained about the new system, Military.com reported on Saturday, with one telling the outlet the move was an "infringement on my religious liberty."

The Defense Department announced in June that it would cut down the number of religious identities service members can register on their personnel records from more than 200 to just 31.

At the time, DOD spokesperson Sean Parnell cast it as a way to streamline support for religious servicemembers, calling it a "long overdue move."

The move immediately drew the ire of several Republican lawmakers after Mormonism was initially excluded from the list. Sen. Mike Lee criticized the changes as "repugnant to any sense of decency, any sense of our common heritage and our common belief that the government needs to not weigh in on doctrinal disputes between various religious denominations."

Since his appointment, Hegseth has been repeatedly accused of eroding the separation of Church and State.

The Pentagon's X account shares photos of Pete Hegseth with Pastor Doug Wilson. / screen grab

In May, for example, the MRFF said it had received more than 200 calls from active-duty personnel across 50 military installations after the U.S. struck Iran in coordination with Israel overnight Saturday. Callers said their commanders had likened Trump's war on Iran to a holy war.

Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor who has been married three times, has also launched a monthly Christian worship series at the Pentagon, where he invited his self-described Christian nationalist pastor, Doug Wilson. The pastor, who has supported repealing women's right to vote and criminalizing homosexuality, delivered a sermon in the Pentagon auditorium.