Trump Hits a Record-Low 33%. Inside His Political Shop, Everyone Is Blaming Someone Else.

President Donald J. Trump’s official portrait, taken June 2, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Skip past the headline figure in Sunday’s ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll for a moment and look at a smaller one: 39. That is the share of Republicans who now say they strongly approve of President Donald Trump, down from 63% in February 2025, according to ABC News’ write-up of the survey.

The headline figure is rough enough by itself. Trump’s job approval stands at 33% among U.S. adults, the lowest the poll has recorded across both of his terms and below the 38% he drew after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Two-thirds, 66%, disapprove, and 52% disapprove strongly. Among registered voters the split is 37% to 63%, per the Ipsos topline. The Washington Post’s Dan Balz wrote Sunday that the numbers leave Republicans facing a bleak landscape two weeks from Election Day.

Pump prices, not press releases

The poll’s sharpest edge is the cost of living. Just 21% approve of how Trump is handling it, while 77% disapprove. On inflation it is 23% to 75%, and on the economy overall 28% to 70%, a record low for him across both terms.

Seventy-one percent now call gasoline unaffordable, up from 28% in February, before the war in Iran sent fuel costs higher. ABC reports the national average has topped $4 a gallon for a record 158 days so far in 2026. Sixty percent call groceries unaffordable, 65% say the same of health care, and 50% say it of rent or a mortgage. Nearly half, 48%, say they are not as well off as when Trump took office, the highest share in either of his presidencies.

The diagnosis from inside the building

Washington’s usual response to numbers like these is to find someone to blame. Reuters reported Saturday that the search has already begun. Citing three people familiar with internal discussions, the wire service said Trump is blaming senior aides and political operatives, questioning campaign spending, faulting redistricting and second-guessing candidate choices.

Much of the friction, according to Reuters, centers on James Blair, who runs Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc., and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. The report says Trump has faulted Blair’s handling of campaign funds and is asking why MAGA Inc.’s spending, which public records put at $200 million so far, hasn’t lifted Republican numbers. One source summed it up: “What’s really happening is a circular firing squad.”

Weigh that for what it is: unnamed people describing private conversations. Those on the receiving end answered on the record. White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the sources “armchair experts peddling their baseless speculation.” Blair said, “All of this mudslinging is ridiculous, and counterproductive.” Chris LaCivita, who co-managed Trump’s 2024 campaign, said, “Sniping from unnamed cowards who’ve never been in a fight is not worth responding to.” Trump defended Wiles on Friday, calling her “smart” and “tough,” and said, “Susie is here, and she’s going to be here for a long time.”

Some of the strain is already public. After Blair and LaCivita traveled in early October to Republika Srpska, a self-governing region of Bosnia, The New York Times reported that the two received substantial payments to advise the regional government ahead of local elections, Reuters noted. Trump answered in an Oct. 7 Truth Social post that called them “outside consultants” and warned that if he found a conflict of interest he would “terminate them, immediately!”

What no staffer can fix

Here is the accountability question the finger-pointing skips. Reuters wrote that Trump has largely avoided acknowledging his own role in shaping the midterm strategy. The complaints in this poll don’t land on a chief of staff’s desk. They land on things voters can see for themselves.

Three in four adults, 74%, say it is inappropriate for the federal government to pay for TV ads promoting Trump and his policies. ABC notes Trump said he would cover those ads from political funds, yet they kept running with a “paid for by the U.S. government” line, and a federal judge has since ordered them pulled. Eighty percent call his push to put his name on the Kennedy Center inappropriate, including 57% of Republicans. And 59% say he is focused too much on building projects in Washington.

Conservatives who sent Republicans to Washington to shrink the government, not to advertise the people running it, have every right to ask about that. Some already are: 27% of Republicans tell pollsters Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, part of a record 66% of all adults who say so.

The other column

None of this means the country has warmed to the left. Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot 52% to 44% among likely voters, yet the Democratic Party itself is underwater at 44% favorable and 54% unfavorable. The Republican Party does worse, at 35% to 63%. Democratic socialism, the label embraced by the party’s left flank, sits 22 points underwater at 37% favorable and 59% unfavorable. Republicans still hold a five-point edge on crime, and the public splits roughly evenly on which party it trusts on immigration.

Enthusiasm is a Republican problem too. Seventy-two percent of Democratic voters say they are absolutely certain to vote, compared with 65% of Republican voters. Those planning to vote in person on Election Day favor Republicans by 11 points, while early and mail voters lean Democratic.

Trump has spent the fall telling rally crowds to pretend his name is on the Nov. 3 ballot, according to Reuters. Two weeks out, a record share of Americans are grading him as if it were, and the grade is being set at the gas pump, not on the org chart.

About the poll: The ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey was conducted Oct. 9-13, 2026, through Ipsos’ probability-based KnowledgePanel among 2,545 U.S. adults, including 2,032 registered and likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points overall and 2.2 points among registered and likely voters.

Sources

• ABC News: Democrats lead Republicans in House vote choice as Trump’s approval rating hits record low

• The Washington Post: Trump approval hits record low, handing Democrats a clear midterm edge

• Ipsos: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos topline, October 2026 (PDF)

• Reuters (via Yahoo News): Trump faults aides as Republican midterm prospects dim

• Photo: Official White House portrait by Daniel Torok, Wikimedia Commons

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.