Trump economic approval hits new low: Survey

Many Americans share a negative view of President Trump’s handle on the economy, with the numbers hitting a new low this week, according to a recent poll.

The survey from The Associated Press/NORC Research Center, published Thursday, found 65 percent of U.S. adults blame Trump’s policies for high prices more than other economic drivers.

The data shows that 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handle on the economy.

Roughly 69 percent of respondents, including half of Republicans, said his agenda has been “worse than expected.” Another 23 percent said his agenda has been about as expected while 7 percent said it has been better than expected, the poll shows.

About 17 percent of respondents said they approved of the president’s response to the cost of living, and 26 percent approved of his overall handling of the economy. The AP/NORC poll noted that approval of Trump’s economic agenda has dropped 14 percentage points since March 2025.

More than half of respondents also said the national economy and the country as a whole have been worse off since Trump returned to the Oval Office last year. The poll showed 61 percent of respondents said the nation’s economy is worse off under the current administration, compared with 23 percent who said it’s better off.

Questions about the state of the country yielded similar results: 61 percent of respondents said it is worse off, and 26 percent said it is better off.

Americans largely said the president’s handling of other issues, including trade negotiations at 58 percent, foreign policy at 55 percent and immigration at 48 percent, has been “worse than expected.”

Few respondents said they believed Trump has kept his campaign promises. Around 17 percent — including Republicans and Democrats — said the president has not delivered. The majority of Democrats, 87 percent, agreed with this view.

Just less than half of Republican respondents, or 48 percent, said the president has tried to keep his promises but has often been unable to.

The president’s approval ratings have steadily sunk over the course of the summer, dipping into the low 30s across several polls. A Wall Street Journal poll published last Friday showed his approval rating dropped to 37 percent, the lowest of any president before the midterm elections dating back to the Journal’s initial polling of the matter back in 1990.

Trump and Republicans are facing down the widely unpopular Iran war, a conflict that has stretched to seven months as of Monday. The war has contributed to elevated prices, affecting inflation earlier this year and likely next year and causing gas prices to soar.

The AP/NORC survey was conducted Sept. 24-28 and included 2,140 respondents. The margin of error is 2.9 percentage points.