CNN host Kaitlan Collins laid out President Donald Trump’s brutal polling numbers on air, highlighting an approval rating that has sunk to post-Jan 6 Capitol riot levels.
The segment on Monday came as Trump pursues an unusual strategy of holding a special Republican convention ahead of the November midterms, effectively putting himself and his record at the center of hundreds of individual House and Senate races.
The Atlantic reported last week that Trump has decided to use his MAGA Inc. super PAC’s funds to buy a series of television advertisements about his own record to serve as a backdrop to those contests.
“Actually, some Republicans aren’t behind it because they think it’s taking them off the campaign trail,” Collins said of the unconventional convention plan.
“Not just off the campaign trail, but also forming fresh ad copy for Democrats to run against them,” CNN commentator and New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman replied.
Collins then aired a graphic showing Trump’s overall approval rating at a meager 34 percent, matching a career low that came after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Half of Americans now strongly disapprove of him, a record high for his two terms, while only 15 percent strongly approve, also a record. Just 31 percent of respondents had a positive view of the Republican Party under his leadership, according to the CNN poll conducted by SSRS from July 23 to 27.
Haberman weighed in on the numbers. “Some of the public polling, I don’t know how much it correlates. It doesn’t entirely correlate with some private polling. But there is no polling where this president is popular. Let’s put it that way. And there is no polling where he is not in trouble on the issue of affordability,” she said.
“I will note that, repeatedly, the word ‘affordability’ was used at his Oval Office event today on healthcare, despite him repeatedly saying it’s a hoax. This is the kind of thing that Republicans who are in these districts that are embattled do not want to be dealing with.”
Reuters reported separately that Trump’s political brand increasingly looks like a liability for Republicans, who are defending slim congressional majorities in the November 3 midterms. A Reuters/Ipsos survey of 924 registered voters nationwide, conducted August 28-31, found Trump’s approval stuck at 33 percent, with Democrats appearing more energized heading into the midterms.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll delivered more bad news, finding Trump’s approval had sunk to a new low. Just 32 percent of 1,000 respondents to the survey, conducted August 21-26, approved of his job performance, a 1-point drop from a March UMass poll. Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, disapproved, including 54 percent who disapproved “strongly.”
The UMass poll also found 68 percent of respondents believe Trump is not handling the war with Iran well, with just 25 percent saying he is handling it somewhat or very well. The survey carried a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
The slide comes as the Iran conflict enters its seventh month, after Trump initially predicted it would last roughly one month.
Inflation is also weighing on his numbers, with more than half of UMass respondents saying he is handling it not well at all, versus 22 percent who said he is handling it somewhat or very well.
Annual inflation in July stood at 3.7 percent, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, up 1.2 points from January 2025, the month Trump returned to office promising to lower the cost of essentials.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
