President Donald Trump’s approval rating trails his disapproval rating in eight of nine states where prominent Republicans have recently challenged his policies or created distance from him on individual issues, according to a Newsweek analysis of state-level data from Civiqs’ national rolling tracker. Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin are home to Republicans who have opposed or questioned elements of Trump’s agenda. Several of the Republicans involved continue to support Trump or have his endorsement.
But the disputes are emerging in states that include closely contested midterm battlegrounds and longtime Republican strongholds, at a time when polling shows broader dissatisfaction with the president’s performance and his handling of the war in Iran. These splits with the president have included disagreements over the Iran war, immigration policy, tariffs on imports, presidential war powers, foreign dealings involving Donald Trump Jr., and the prominence given to Trump in campaign messaging. Among the nine states, Trump is furthest underwater in Maine, where 31 percent approve and 63 percent disapprove, according to Civiqs’ rolling tracker, which had recorded 131,787 responses from registered voters as of September 22, 2026.
Michigan follows at 36 percent to 58 percent, while Pennsylvania stands at 36 percent to 57 percent. Utah is the sole exception, with approval narrowly ahead, 46 percent to 45 percent. Across the other five states, Trump’s approval rating also trails disapproval: Nationally, 35 percent approve of his performance, and 59 percent disapprove, according to the Civiqs data.
That gives the president a nationwide net approval rating (those who approve minus those who disapprove) of -24 percentage points. The contrast with the start of Trump’s second term is stark. On January 20, 2025, he had positive net approval ratings in 24 states and was level in three others.
Twenty months later, just 11 states remained positive. Newsweek reached out to every Republican mentioned in this article via email for comment on Wednesday morning. Several of these disagreements with Trump have emerged in politically important races where candidates in the November 3 midterm elections must retain voters without losing those concerned about living costs, fuel prices or administration policy.
The nine states do not form a single political bloc. They range from Maine, where Trump is more than 30 percentage points underwater, to Utah, where approval leads by one point. Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Ohio have recently supported Trump in presidential elections, while Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have been closely fought battlegrounds.
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