Nearly three-quarters of likely voters disapprove of how President Donald Trump has handled gas prices, with the midterm elections 13 days away and his overall approval rating at the lowest point of his second term. A New York Times/Siena University poll found that 73 percent of likely voters disapprove of Trump's handling of gas prices, compared with 24 percent who approve. The poll surveyed 3,494 voters October 12-19.
No issue in the poll scored worse for the president, and the frustration runs well past Democrats: 77 percent of independents disapprove, along with 42 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of people who voted for him in 2024. Disapproval hit 91 percent among voters under 30. Hispanic voters, who shifted toward Trump two years ago, disapprove 79 percent to 17 percent.
Overall, 36 percent of likely voters approve of Trump's job performance and 59 percent disapprove. His approval among registered voters is 34 percent, 3 points below the September Times/Siena poll and the lowest he has recorded in the series. In September 2025, it stood at 43 percent.
Nate Cohn, the Times' chief political analyst, wrote that the figure is the lowest approval rating for any president heading into the midterms since Harry Truman in 1946, when Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress. Truman stood at 33 percent in Gallup's polling that year. Trump’s low ratings look just as dangerous for Republicans in the broader context of historical approval ratings heading into midterms.
The president’s party almost always fares poorly in midterm elections, but especially when the president’s approval rating is low," Cohn wrote. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email. Sixty-four percent of voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, up from 53 percent in the September 2025 survey, when 44 percent approved.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Texas, told Newsweek that the cost of living, gas and diesel prices, housing and healthcare are all piling up on his party. "That's all weighing on Republicans," he said. The broader economic outlook is also bleak: 75 percent rate national economic conditions as fair or poor, including 51 percent who called them poor.
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