WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval rate held near the lowest levels of his political career in recent days as most Americans said they expected gasoline prices to keep rising amid the Iran war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
Some 35 per cent of respondents said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, unchanged from a prior Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-May. The reading was just above the lowest rating of his current term in office - 34 per cent in an April Reuters/Ipsos poll - and also close to his first-term low of 33 per cent in December 2017.
The Republican leader has faced widespread discontent in recent months over his decision to go to war with Iran, which has led to a surge in gasoline prices.
While prices at the pump have edged lower in recent weeks amid bets the Iran conflict would end, some 59 per cent of respondents said they expected U.S. gas prices to get worse in the next year, compared with 17 per cent who thought they would get better, according to the six-day poll. The rest of the respondents said they weren’t sure or that prices would stay the same.
Trump ordered military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 alongside U.S. ally Israel. Iran responded with counterattacks that have largely shut down shipping through a narrow strait that previously carried a fifth of global oil trade. The pace of attacks and counterattacks has diminished since April but peace talks have yet to yield a lasting agreement.
Low approval on cost of living
Only 22 per cent of Americans approve of how Trump is managing the cost of living for U.S. households, compared to 70 per cent who disapprove. Americans are now more dissatisfied with Trump’s performance on the issue than they were of his Democratic predecessor in office, Joe Biden, who closed out his term with 29 per cent approval on the cost of living and 63 per cent disapproval.
Biden struggled with several years of high inflation which ultimately weighed on his party in the 2024 presidential election and helped lift Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump campaigned on promises to fix inflation, and persistently high fuel prices are weighing on his party’s hopes of keeping control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Some 36 per cent of Americans said they approved of U.S. strikes on Iran. A smaller share - 25 per cent - said the benefits of the strikes had been worth the costs.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was carried out nationwide, showed registered voters said they would pick Democrats over Republicans by 41 to 37 per cent if congressional elections were held today. While polls last year showed voters trusted Republicans more on how to manage the economy, their advantage has recently evaporated, with 36 per cent of voters in the latest poll saying Democrats had a better plan for the economy, compared to 37 per cent who picked Republicans.
The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,531 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Jason Lange, Reuters
