President Donald Trump’s support among rural Americans has plunged since he took office, a new poll has found, a stark change within a demographic that once strongly supported the Republican.
Trump’s approval rating among these voters stood at 50 percent in early June, down from 60 percent in February of last year, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll with a three percent margin of error.
A nearly equal share of rural Americans, 48 percent, said they disapprove of the president, while 31 percent of rural respondents said they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and cost of living issues.
“We’re in bigger water fights with AI, we’re all paying more for groceries and we’re all paying more for gas,” Brian Rauch, 42, of rural Stevensville, Montana, told Reuters. “My day to day is negatively impacted and I haven’t seen these other benefits.”
Trump is estimated to have won rural voters by about 40 points in 2024, but a variety of administration moves have complicated rural life since.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The war with Iran, which stopped most all oil shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz, sent gas prices sky high, a major barrier for rural Americans, who tend to drive longer distances and earn lower incomes than their urban counterparts.
The war also snarled the global fertilizer trade through the strait, raising input prices for farmers across the globe. That came on the back of other Trump hits to the agricultural economy, including global tariffs that impacted prices on key machinery such as farm equipment.
In a move to appeal to the rural base, the Trump administration made a rare immigration concession earlier this year by making it easier for farms to hire temporary migrants workers to address the persistent rural labor shortage in agriculture.
Earlier this month, the president’s overall support hit an all-time low, with a net approval rating of about negative 25.
And the president’s support among independents without a college degree, a group that helped power his 2024 win, has fallen from 48 percent during his comeback campaign to about 25 percent now.
Despite the president’s numerous events aimed at celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, as well as his signature promise to “Make America Great Again,” most Americans think the country’s best days are behind it, according to a new NBC News poll of 3,000 U.S. adults.
The recently agreed framework to end the U.S.-Iran war could provide some welcomed relief for the president and his voters alike if gas prices stay down, though observers warn any fall in prices will depend on long-term peace returning to the region.
