President Donald Trump is not only facing a more hostile Congress after his party’s midterm election drubbing but also fresh evidence of discontent among American voters, according to new national polling. In its first post-election poll, the Economist/YouGov series has found the president 26 points underwater, with 36 percent approving of his job performance and 62 percent disapproving, a seven-point deterioration from the pollster’s final survey before Election Day. That shift could be significant for Republican lawmakers deciding how closely to align themselves with a president whose core supporters remain loyal but whose broader standing could complicate the party’s recovery.
In a previous emailed response to Newsweek about Trump’s polling, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle pointed to the president’s 2024 election victory, calling it “the ultimate poll.” Ingle said nearly 80 million Americans had backed Trump to enact what he described as a popular, commonsense agenda. He argued that the administration was making progress on job creation, inflation and housing affordability, adding: “This is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.” Newsweek emailed the White House for further comment on Tuesday morning. Midterm voters do not elect or remove a sitting president, but they can transform the political environment around one.
Republican losses have given Democrats greater leverage over legislation, investigations and confirmation battles during the remainder of Trump’s term. Presidential approval can also influence whether lawmakers embrace the White House’s agenda, distance themselves from it or chart a more independent course before the next election. One survey cannot establish that the midterm result caused attitudes toward Trump to worsen.
Its timing nevertheless offers an early indication that defeat has not produced an immediate reset in how registered voters judge his performance. The latest Economist/YouGov survey questioned 3,166 registered voters from November 4 to 6 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, adjusted for weighting. YouGov described it as a post-election poll because fieldwork began the day after voting concluded.
Opposition was also more intense than support, with 50 percent strongly disapproving of the president’s performance, and 17 percent strongly approving. Partisans remained sharply divided: 78 percent of Republicans approved, compared with 3 percent of Democrats. Respondents without a party affiliation split 36 percent to 59 percent against him.
Men were more likely than women to approve of Trump’s performance, by 41 percent to 32 percent, while disapproval among women reached 66 percent. Approval stood at 30 percent among voters ages 18 to 29 and 31 percent among those ages 30 to 44, before rising to 37 percent among 45- to 64-year-olds and 43 percent among people 65 or older. Some 41 percent of registered voters without a college degree approved of the president’s performance, compared with 28 percent of college graduates.
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