The latest poll is another warning sign for President Donald Trump, but its sharp partisan divide shows why a single approval number does not tell the whole political story. The bigger test is whether concerns about affordability and international crises change voter behavior before November’s midterms.
Donald Trump’s approval rating declined again, with a new Economist/YouGov poll finding that 33% of respondents approve of his job performance while 62% disapprove. The survey, conducted Aug. 7-10 among 1,589 respondents, documents the latest drop in Trump approval as the Iran war, affordability concerns and November’s midterm elections put added pressure on the White House and Republicans in Congress.
Trump approval takes another hit in this poll, but the number is most useful when read alongside the unusually wide partisan split and the specific issues voters were asked to assess. It is a snapshot of public sentiment, not a prediction of November’s results.
The poll’s central finding
The Economist/YouGov survey found a 29-point gap between Trump’s approval and disapproval ratings: 33% approved of the way he is handling the presidency, while 62% disapproved.
That result fits with other recent polling cited by The Hill. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released the prior week put Trump’s overall approval at 35%, while a Quinnipiac University poll released at the end of July put it at 32%.
Polls do not all ask questions in exactly the same way or reach identical groups of respondents, so their figures should not be treated as interchangeable. Still, the clustering of results in the low-to-mid 30s points to a consistent difficult period for the president’s public standing.
A sharply partisan verdict
The national topline conceals an enormous political divide. The Economist/YouGov poll found that 79% of Republican respondents approved of Trump’s performance, compared with 4% of Democratic respondents.
That split means Trump retains considerable support within his own party even as his overall rating is underwater. For Republicans, the challenge is less about holding the most loyal GOP voters than about avoiding losses among independents, less-engaged voters and people who may judge the administration through prices, jobs and security rather than party identity.
For Democrats, the weak overall number offers an opening, but not a guarantee. A president’s approval can shape the climate of a midterm election, yet congressional races are also influenced by individual candidates, local issues, campaign spending, turnout and voters’ views of the opposing party.
Foreign policy and affordability loom
The poll arrived during an ongoing war involving Iran and as affordability remains a major concern for many households. Those subjects are especially difficult because they test different parts of a presidency: foreign-policy judgment on one hand, and whether people feel daily economic pressure easing on the other.
Only 30% of respondents said they had confidence in Trump’s ability to deal wisely with an international crisis, according to the survey. That measure does not establish why each respondent reached that view, but it signals a broader vulnerability beyond a generic job-approval question.
On immigration, about 40% expressed support for Trump’s handling of the issue. That was stronger than the international-crisis figure, though still well short of majority support in the poll.
The White House disputed the negative picture. Spokesperson Davis Ingle said Trump was working to create jobs, cool inflation and increase housing affordability, arguing that the administration’s agenda was still taking effect.
Age remains another concern
The survey also found that 53% of respondents considered Trump “too old” for the job. The response again reflected a wide partisan gap: 85% of Democrats said so, compared with 17% of Republicans.
Age questions can become politically potent because they are not limited to one policy dispute. They can affect perceptions of stamina, judgment and readiness, even among voters who otherwise support a president’s agenda.
At the same time, the partisan breakdown suggests this concern is far from universally shared. Republicans who approve of Trump’s performance may see age criticism as partisan messaging, while critics may view it as part of a larger question about leadership during a period of economic and international uncertainty.
How much weight to give it
The Economist/YouGov poll had a margin of error of about 3.2 percentage points. In practical terms, small shifts within that range may reflect normal sampling variation rather than a meaningful change in public opinion.
That is why the 33% figure matters most as part of a pattern. It closely follows other recent national surveys showing Trump’s approval in a similar range, rather than standing as an isolated outlier.
It also has limits. Approval polling measures sentiment at a particular moment; it does not reveal exactly which policy decision changed someone’s view, how intensely they hold that view, or whether they will vote in a midterm election. The survey’s partisan results also show that national averages can obscure very different political realities among different groups.
The midterm test is approaching
Republicans are trying to maintain control of both chambers of Congress in the November midterms. A president with weak approval ratings can make that task harder, particularly if voters remain dissatisfied with the cost of living or unsettled by events overseas.
But the election is still not reducible to one presidential poll. Trump’s ability to improve confidence on affordability and international leadership, the candidates nominated in competitive districts and states, and turnout among both parties’ voters will all shape the outcome.
For now, the Economist/YouGov result offers a clear measure of the problem: Trump’s core Republican support remains strong, but his overall approval is low, disapproval is much higher, and the issues most likely to dominate the political conversation are not yet producing majority confidence in his performance.
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