U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to a record low of 31 percent, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday, marking the weakest public assessment of his leadership across both of his terms in office. The decline, a one-point drop from the survey conducted two weeks earlier, comes as Americans voice mounting concern over high gasoline prices and the strain on household finances. With congressional elections scheduled for November 3, the poll suggests that voters may take their frustrations out on the president's Republican Party at the ballot box.
A historic low in the Reuters/Ipsos survey
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that just 31 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That figure is the weakest level recorded across both of his terms, meaning public evaluations of his performance have now sunk below any point measured during either his earlier presidency or his current one. The survey closed on Monday, making it one of the most up-to-date snapshots of national opinion available as the country moves toward the November 3 vote.
While a single point may appear to be a modest shift, the direction of the trend is what political observers will note most closely. The poll showed a one-point decline from the survey taken two weeks earlier, pointing to a gradual erosion of support rather than a sudden collapse. Steady slides of this kind matter because public assessments of a president, once they begin to slip on economic grounds, can be slow to reverse. Voters who have come to associate an administration with financial pressure tend to hold that judgment unless their day-to-day circumstances visibly improve.
Key findings at a glance
- 31 percent approval, the lowest level recorded across both of Trump's terms in office.
- A one-point drop from the previous Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted two weeks earlier.
- High gasoline prices and economic strain identified as the concerns weighing on Americans.
- The survey indicates voters may punish the Republican Party in the November 3 congressional elections.
Economic anxiety sits at the heart of the decline
The poll points squarely at the economy, and at fuel costs in particular, as the force dragging down the president's standing. Gasoline prices are among the most visible economic signals American consumers encounter, displayed on signs at filling stations week after week, and they shape perceptions of broader financial health even among households that face no other immediate pressures. When the price at the pump climbs, public satisfaction with the direction of the country tends to fall alongside it, and presidents frequently absorb the political consequences regardless of how directly their policies bear on the cost of fuel.
The summary's reference to "economic strain" captures a mood that extends beyond the gas pump. The survey's indication that voters are worried about stretched budgets suggests that the cost of daily life has become the dominant political question for many Americans. Presidents are rarely judged in the abstract; they are measured against the lived experience of the people who elected them. An approval rating of 31 percent, the lowest of Trump's two presidencies, indicates that for a large majority of the public, that lived experience is currently working against the White House, with the poll's closing on Monday underscoring how recent and how current this sentiment is.
A warning shot for Republicans before November 3
The survey carries a clear political message: voters may punish Trump's Republican Party when congressional elections are held on November 3. National congressional elections serve in part as a referendum on the president, and the fortunes of the party holding the White House have historically tracked closely with the president's standing in the polls, particularly when economic worries dominate. An approval rating stuck at 31 percent hands opposition campaigns a ready-made line of attack and places the president's party in the position of defending an economic record that voters, at least in this survey, are judging harshly.
The timing sharpens the concern. Because the poll closed on Monday, it reflects public sentiment well within the final stretch of the campaign, when remaining time for opinion to shift is limited. If gasoline prices remain high and the sense of economic strain persists, the conditions that produced this record low could still be in place when voters go to the polls on November 3, leaving Republicans little room to reset the narrative before ballots are cast.
Presidential approval ratings also matter well beyond symbolism. They shape how much political capital a president is perceived to command, how members of Congress in his party choose to align with him, and how forcefully his opponents press their case in the closing weeks of a campaign. A reading in the low 30s signals that the president's coalition has narrowed considerably, and that the voters who have turned away are not merely undecided but actively dissatisfied, most pointedly on the economic questions this poll identifies as most pressing.
For now, the Reuters/Ipsos findings stand as the clearest quantitative measure of the political moment: a president at the weakest point of his two terms, an electorate anxious about gasoline prices and household strain, and a Republican Party that the survey suggests may be primed for punishment on November 3. Whether this record low proves to be a turning point or one more step in a steady slide will depend largely on the economic conditions Americans encounter in the weeks before they vote.
