Donald Trump drops to record-low for his presidential job approval
Today, we’re spotlighting the May 22 - 26, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll.
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Only one in three Americans approves of how Donald Trump is handling his job as president, lower than Trump’s approval in any weekly Economist / YouGov Poll over his two terms as president, and lower than Joe Biden ever received during his term. 34% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of Trump’s job handling, and 59% disapprove, for a net job approval of -26.
Trump’s net approval of -26 is also a record low for either of his terms or Biden’s term.
Trump hit record-low net approval for either of his terms among Democrats (-96) and Independents (-44), and a new low for his second term among Republicans (+61).
Other record-low net job approval numbers for Trump’s second term this week include those among men (-19) and white Americans (-13, tied with one month ago).
Trump’s record-low approval comes as concerns about the economy are as high as they’ve been in years. For the second week in a row, 63% of Americans say the economy is getting worse, while only 13% say it’s getting better. The only time since 2017 that more Americans said the economy was getting worse was in the summer of 2022, during a surge in inflation.
43% of Americans say they and their family are worse off financially than they were a year ago, the highest since 2024. It’s the first time since 2024 that the share of Americans saying they are about the same financially as they were a year ago (42%) hasn’t been higher than the share saying they’re worse off. Only 10% say they’re better off than a year ago.
Only 24% of Americans support Trump’s project to tear down the East Wing of the White House and build a new ballroom. 58% of Americans — including 91% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and 23% of Republicans — oppose that project. Republicans who are MAGA supporters back the ballroom by 77% to 11%, but Republicans who say they’re not MAGA supporters are more likely to oppose it (33% support and 48% oppose).
See more findings from this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll
This newsletter was written by David Montgomery and Carl Bialik
See a version of this report on the YouGov website, plus the toplines and crosstabs for the May 22 - 26, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,520 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, geographic region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.
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