President Donald Trump’s political standing has taken a major hit, with a new poll showing the widest approval gap of either of his terms in office.
According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, conducted between June 8-11 among 1,340 respondents, just 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance compared to 59 percent who disapprove—the widest approval gap of either of his terms in office.
The poll also points to growing weakness among several groups that helped fuel Trump’s 2024 victory.
Approval has continued to slide among Gen Z voters (25 percent), Gen X voters (36 percent), and Americans earning less than $50,000 a year (34 percent)—demographics that shifted toward Trump in the last election.
Latino voters also now disapprove by roughly a two-to-one margin despite moving significantly toward Trump in 2024. His standing has also cratered in rural America, where he has fallen from a net positive approval rating of 22 points in February to 10 points underwater.
That is a warning sign for Trump and his party ahead of the midterms, especially after a new CNN/SSRS poll this week showed that increasingly fewer voters identify as Republicans.
That includes younger voters, men, and white voters without college degrees, who have all become less likely to identify with the GOP.
It comes amid Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran, which has seen energy prices spike as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze Americans.
The national average price for regular gas has fallen slightly to $4.02 a gallon after climbing above $4.50, according to AAA. In seven states, the average price of gasoline has exceeded $5 per gallon.
Meanwhile, oil prices have surged by about 35 percent. Overall, energy prices are up 3.8 percent.
In total, the war in Iran has cost U.S. households $100 billion so far. That amounts to nearly $750 a household.
At the same time, inflation climbed to 4.2 percent in May, marking its highest level in three years, with prices up 0.5 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index.
Amid rising prices, polls have shown that Americans are feeling more negative about the economy than ever.
The NPR poll showed that just 33 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 60 percent disapprove—a rating even lower than the worst economic approval figures recorded by former President Joe Biden during his time in office.
The erosion extends into Trump’s own base. More than one in five Republicans (22 percent) now disapprove of his economic stewardship, while the share who strongly approve of his overall job performance has fallen from 61 percent in April to 53 percent in June.
Support has also weakened among a key constituency that was central to Trump’s electoral success: white voters without a college degree. Only one-third approve of his handling of the economy, down sharply from nearly half just two months earlier.
Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of Americans say gasoline prices remain a burden on their household budgets, while 45 percent do not plan to take a summer vacation this year.
Among that group, roughly half cite affordability concerns as the primary reason.
Amid growing concerns over rising costs, Regina Kulenga, a Trump voter in Georgia told NPR she is now undecided about voting in the midterm elections, saying she feels Trump’s return to office has been a “slap in the face.”
“The economy is suffering a lot right now, and I just feel like a lot of the things that he did promise, you know, we’re still waiting,” she said. “Honestly, I was a big Trump supporter in the beginning… and I’m like, someone needs to do something about it because he’s not doing anything right now for the economy but making things, I feel, in my opinion, a lot worse than what they were.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Beast: “President Trump has always been clear about the fact that oil and gas prices—and thus overall inflation—will rapidly drop as soon as the Iran situation is resolved.
“Prior to the start of Operation Epic Fury, American workers had recovered almost half of the real wage losses they experienced under Joe Biden thanks to this Administration’s commonsense agenda of deregulation, tax cuts, and energy abundance – an agenda that the Administration continues to implement to deliver more economic relief for the American people.”
