Trump's approval rating drops to new low in poll ahead of key midterms
Portrait of Fernando Cervantes Jr.Fernando Cervantes Jr.
USA TODAY
Sept. 28, 2026, 2:27 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump's approval rating reached a new low in the Wall Street Journal's polling, marking the lowest approval for an incumbent president heading into the midterm elections among the outlet's decades of surveys.
The poll, released over the weekend, found Trump’s approval rating at 37%, the lowest for a president leading into the midterms since the Wall Street Journal began polling in 1990, when former President George H.W. Bush was in office.
Trump’s lower approval rating comes as Americans continue to express deep disapproval of the economy and the president’s role in it. According to the latest poll, 65% said the economy was not strong, and 60% said that Trump’s policies have made the economy worse.
The Wall Street Journal poll was conducted Sept. 16-21 among 1,500 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Shades of 2006
According to the WSJ poll, the most comparable mark since 1990 was former President George W. Bush ahead of the 2006 midterm elections, when he had a 39% approval rating.
In that year’s midterms, amid a deeply unpopular war in Iraq, Democrats gained five seats in the Senate and 31 in the House of Representatives. That gave them control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in a decade.
Twenty years later, polls show that many Americans are critical of the war in Iran. Democrats have held leads ranging from five to 11 percentage points over the GOP in multiple surveys when participants were asked who they want to control Congress.
What do polling averages show?
While individual polls vary, major polling averages continue to place Trump in negative territory overall:
RealClearPolitics (Sept. 28): 38.7% approve, 59.9% disapprove
New York Times (Sept. 28): 37% approve, 60% disapprove
Silver Bulletin (Sept. 28): 37.4% approve, 60.1% disapprove
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervante s@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
