Trump approval falls to 33% as Democrats lead House ballot in new poll
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey found Donald Trump at a personal-low 33% approval rating while likely voters favored Democratic House candidates by eight points.
President Donald Trump’s job approval fell to 33% in a newly released ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, the lowest level recorded for him by the survey series across either of his presidential terms. The national poll also showed Democratic candidates leading Republicans on the generic House ballot weeks before the November 3, 2026, midterm elections.
Ipsos surveyed 2,545 U.S. adults from October 9 through October 13 using its probability-based KnowledgePanel. The sample included 2,032 registered and likely voters. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2 percentage points for all adults and 2.2 points for registered and likely voters.
Approval reaches a low in the poll series
The survey found 66% of adults disapproved of Trump’s performance, including 52% who strongly disapproved. Among registered voters, 37% approved and 63% disapproved. Approval among independents stood at 22%, while 79% of Republicans approved.
Those figures describe one national survey rather than an election forecast. Poll results can shift, subgroup estimates carry larger margins of error, and control of the House will be decided in individual districts. The comparison is nevertheless notable because ABC News said Trump’s 33% approval rating was below the 38% measured by the same poll series after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The ABC report did not include a White House response to the poll. The survey also found that 61% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents wanted the party to follow Trump’s leadership, while 37% preferred a different direction, indicating that his position inside the party remained considerably stronger than his standing with the public overall.
Democrats hold an eight-point generic-ballot advantage
Likely voters favored the Democratic candidate in their congressional district over the Republican candidate by 52% to 44%. Registered voters produced the same eight-point margin, 50% to 42%. Ipsos and ABC said the Democratic lead among registered voters had widened from three points in a July Washington Post/Ipsos survey.
Independent likely voters preferred Democratic candidates by 56% to 35%. The poll also showed a turnout-attention gap: 72% of Democratic voters said they were certain to vote, compared with 65% of Republican voters, and Democrats were more likely to say they were following the midterms very or extremely closely.
A generic ballot measures national sentiment and does not account for candidate quality, district boundaries or local issues. The survey’s likely-voter estimate also depends on modeled probabilities of voting. For those reasons, the eight-point advantage should be read as a snapshot of the national environment, not as a projection of how many seats either party will win.
Cost concerns dominate economic findings
Economic dissatisfaction was a major feature of the results. Seventy-five percent rated the national economy negatively, and 48% said they were not as well off as when Trump took office. On Trump’s handling of the economy, 28% approved and 70% disapproved; on the cost of living, approval was 21% and disapproval was 77%.
The poll found majorities calling every household-expense category tested unaffordable. That included 71% for gasoline, 65% for health care, 60% for groceries, 57% for home energy and utilities, and 50% for rent or mortgage payments. Ipsos also reported that 72% believed the country was moving in the wrong direction, compared with 26% who said it was moving in the right direction.
The findings connect Trump’s approval rating with two questions likely to shape the closing phase of the midterm campaign: whether voters hold the president’s party responsible for household costs and whether dissatisfaction translates into turnout. The poll cannot answer either question on its own, but it gives both parties a current measure of the political climate as early voting proceeds.
Sources and image credit
Reporting and poll findings: ABC News; primary survey release and methodology: Ipsos; complete topline results.
Image: President Donald Trump at a Trump Accounts announcement in the Oval Office on October 7, 2026, photographed by Joyce N. Boghosian for the White House. Wikimedia Commons source record. Official White House photograph, public domain. Cropped to 16:9 and resized to 1600×900 with no text added. The photograph predates the poll’s release and is illustrative.