A sharp increase in disapproval of Donald Trump’s performance among Republicans has led to his approval rating falling to a record low as the Iran war continues to drive price increases, according to a new poll released on Thursday by Fox News.
The survey found a seven point rise in the number of self-identified GOP voters who now say they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, with just 36 percent of non-MAGA GOP respondents saying they approve of his economic record compared with 74 percent of MAGA Republicans who say they approve.
But the supermajority of MAGA voters who still back his handling of the economy still wasn’t enough to keep his approval rating on the issue from plummeting to just 29 percent — a full five percent lower than what the same poll recorded a month ago.
Even counting self-identified MAGA voters’ continued approval of Trump’s presidency, his handling of inflation remains a weak point in his polling results. Not even a quarter of Americans — just 24 percent — say they approve of how he’s handled inflation despite it being the issue voters said was most important to their decision to return him to power in the 2024 presidential election.
Just over half of Republicans — 51 percent — expressed disapproval of his handling of inflation, with 85 percent of Independents and 96 percent of Democrats also saying they disapprove of his work on the matter.
Trump’s overall approval rating, according to the Fox poll, stands at 39 percent with 61 percent disapproving, including 41 percent who say they “strongly” disapprove. That’s a three-point drop since last month, a full ten points lower than the start of his second term, and a single percentage point above the lowest rating of his first term in October 2017.
The three-point slide was powered by drops in his overall approval among key demographic groups, with rural white voters’ approval dropping by six points, that 3 percent drop among Republicans and a five-point slide from white men without college degrees, a voting bloc that has always been one of his strongest bases of support.
Trump’s plummeting approval ratings come as he faces rare pushback from Republicans in Congress over his demand for $1 billion in funding for his controversial ballroom project and the nearly $1.8 billion slush fund his former personal lawyer turned attorney general is establishing to compensate friends and allies who were investigated or prosecuted for crimes by previous administrations.
Senate Republicans have stripped the ballroom funding provision out of a border security package they will be voting on late Thursday after Majority Leader John Thune rejected Trump’s demand for him to fire the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian who’d previously ruled that a different version of the ballroom funding language could not be included in the border security bill under the fast-track rules that let it bypass the upper chamber’s filibuster.
A number of House and Senate Republicans have also expressed concerns and even opposition to the massive “anti-weaponization fund,” with one GOP member from Pennsylvania, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, vowing to join Democrats in working to block the Justice Department from taking steps to create the slush fund.
And near-record high gas prices amid Trump’s continuing conflict with Iran have persisted in driving the president’s numbers down, with 96 percent saying they gas prices as a problem and 75 percent calling them a “major” problem.
A whopping 91 percent blame Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran for the high gas prices.
