Donald Trump is facing a dismal poll result on a key issue for voters as the negative numbers mount for the president ahead of the midterms.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday has found that the Democratic Party’s edge over the GOP on cost-of-living issues has widened. Republicans are trailing Democrats by eight points when voters were asked which party is better equipped to address affordability.
That gap is the largest since last October, when that pollster first asked that question. It was around that time when President Donald Trump, who campaigned on cost of living issues, started claiming that “affordability” was a “con job” by Democrats.
Voters don’t seem to be buying that.
In the four-day poll of 951 registered voters, 36 percent favored Democrats to handle cost-of-living matters, while 28 percent picked Republicans. The rest said neither party, or weren’t sure.
Democrats’ advantage on the topic emerged this spring as Trump’s war against Iran got underway, raising prices of gasoline and oil. Nearly six months later, prices remain higher than before the war began—$4.10 per gallon, compared to $2.98 in late February, according to AAA.
“This is an easy layup for the party out of power, which are the Democrats,” GOP strategist Christopher Nicholas told Reuters.
“Keeping prescription drug prices lower is a good start, but that seems to be getting lost within the overall healthcare area, in which prices seem to be galloping ahead of inflation every year,” he added. “Voters feel gas and food prices, which are intertwined, every week when they go to the grocery store and gas station.”
The same Reuters/Ipsos poll showed more bad signs for Republicans. Trump’s approval rating was at 33 percent—the lowest of his term, according to the outlet.
Additionally, Trump is losing support among some of his hardline Republican supporters, the poll found.
The percentage of Republicans who said they strongly approve of the 80-year-old’s performance has fallen since May. That month, 43 percent of Republicans said they strongly approved of Trump’s job performance. That number dropped to 38 percent in June, and to 34 percent in July. Trump’s number for August was 35 percent—eight points lower than May.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Spokesperson Davis Ingle previously told the Daily Beast in part, “The ultimate poll was November 5th, 2024 when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda.”
