Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 36% in a new Economist/YouGov poll, while 58% of Americans now disapprove of how he is handling the job. That leaves the president at a net approval of -22, a level that has now held for three straight weeks.
David Montgomery of YouGov said the pattern is unusually stubborn. “In the past, bad numbers one week often have been offset by less-bad numbers in the next poll,” he said. “Now, the share of Americans who approve of Trump’s job handling has been under 40% for two straight months, and his net approval has been -22 for three straight weeks.”
The latest reading lands at a moment when the economy is again pushing prices into the political argument. April’s consumer price index showed prices rising faster than wages for the first time in three years, and the producer price index climbed 6% over the past year, including a 1.4% jump in the last month alone. That monthly increase was the biggest in more than four years, a reminder that inflation is still shaping public attitudes even as the White House tries to focus attention elsewhere.
The numbers also place Trump in uncomfortable company. Polling averages compiled by put his net approval at -20, while another average from Nate Silver put it at -19.6. Both were below where Joe Biden stood when he exited the 2024 race in mid-2024, and both were worse than anything Trump recorded in his first term.
That comparison matters because Trump is now running into the same political headwinds that hurt Biden: inflation and overseas wars. The difference is that Trump entered office promising to do better with both, and the latest polling suggests voters are not yet giving him credit for it. Biden’s worst three-week average was -21.8, which puts Trump’s current standing in the same neighborhood and, by some measures, even lower.
Montgomery’s point cuts to the heart of the shift. Trump is no longer dealing with a single bad survey or a temporary dip. He is facing a stretch of weak numbers that has lasted long enough to look like a baseline. The question now is not whether one more poll moves him up or down, but whether the public’s view of his handling of the job has already settled below the level he needs to reverse.
