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By Sam Stevenson
Associate News Editor
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President Donald Trump is not only facing a more hostile Congress after his party’s midterm election drubbing but also fresh evidence of discontent among American voters, according to new national polling.
In its first post-election poll, the Economist/YouGov series has found the president 26 points underwater, with 36 percent approving of his job performance and 62 percent disapproving, a seven-point deterioration from the pollster’s final survey before Election Day.
That shift could be significant for Republican lawmakers deciding how closely to align themselves with a president whose core supporters remain loyal but whose broader standing could complicate the party’s recovery.
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In a previous emailed response to Newsweek about Trump’s polling, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle pointed to the president’s 2024 election victory, calling it “the ultimate poll.”
Ingle said nearly 80 million Americans had backed Trump to enact what he described as a popular, commonsense agenda.
He argued that the administration was making progress on job creation, inflation and housing affordability, adding: “This is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”
Newsweek emailed the White House for further comment on Tuesday morning.
Why It Matters
Midterm voters do not elect or remove a sitting president, but they can transform the political environment around one.
Republican losses have given Democrats greater leverage over legislation, investigations and confirmation battles during the remainder of Trump’s term.
Presidential approval can also influence whether lawmakers embrace the White House’s agenda, distance themselves from it or chart a more independent course before the next election.
One survey cannot establish that the midterm result caused attitudes toward Trump to worsen. Its timing nevertheless offers an early indication that defeat has not produced an immediate reset in how registered voters judge his performance.
...
The First Post-Election Reading
The latest Economist/YouGov survey questioned 3,166 registered voters from November 4 to 6 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, adjusted for weighting.
YouGov described it as a post-election poll because fieldwork began the day after voting concluded.
Opposition was also more intense than support, with 50 percent strongly disapproving of the president’s performance, and 17 percent strongly approving.
Partisans remained sharply divided: 78 percent of Republicans approved, compared with 3 percent of Democrats. Respondents without a party affiliation split 36 percent to 59 percent against him.
Men were more likely than women to approve of Trump’s performance, by 41 percent to 32 percent, while disapproval among women reached 66 percent.
Approval stood at 30 percent among voters ages 18 to 29 and 31 percent among those ages 30 to 44, before rising to 37 percent among 45- to 64-year-olds and 43 percent among people 65 or older.
Some 41 percent of registered voters without a college degree approved of the president’s performance, compared with 28 percent of college graduates.
Among the latter group, 71 percent disapproved and 58 percent did so strongly.
However, Trump retained overwhelming backing among voters who identified as MAGA supporters.
A total of 91 percent of that group approved of his performance, including 58 percent who strongly approved, while only 8 percent disapproved.
The findings suggest that the president’s core political base remains firmly behind him even as his standing with the wider electorate has deteriorated.
Demographic figures are cross-tabs from the full survey rather than separate polls.
Smaller subgroup sizes carry more uncertainty than the overall sample, so differences of only a few points should not be treated as definitive.
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A Seven-Point Swing
The preceding Economist/YouGov poll, conducted October 23 to 26 among 1,440 registered voters, recorded 39 percent approval and 58 percent disapproval. Its margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points, adjusted for weighting.
A three-point fall in approval combined with a four-point rise in disapproval widened Trump’s net deficit from 19 to 26 points.
The larger sample in the post-election poll produces a narrower margin of error, but it does not eliminate the other methodological reasons that two surveys may differ.
How Polling Aggregates Compare
- Nate Silver’s polling average put Trump’s approval at 37.8 percent on November 9, slightly above its recorded low of 36.3 percent.
- RealClearPolling showed 38.8 percent approval and 59.3 percent disapproval in its November 8 average, a negative spread of 20.5 points.
- The CNN Poll of Polls recorded 34 percent approval and 64 percent disapproval across surveys conducted from October 13 to 26.
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Trump Takes His Own Reading
Trump offered his own informal method for gauging public sentiment during a November 9 call to the premiere of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Primetime.
“I like to watch the call-ins because it gives me a little bit of an indication of where we are,” he said, adding: “I do okay in there.”
The president suggested Republican callers appeared pleased, even if Democrats were not.
Rather than address his approval rating, Trump used the call to defend his record on immigration, foreign policy, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Asked about immigration enforcement policies against hotel employees, waitresses and farmworkers who had lived in the country for extended periods, Trump said his administration had not placed “the same pressure” on those groups as it had on people it regarded as dangerous offenders.
He also said he would be “disappointed” in Republican lawmakers who supported impeaching Hegseth, arguing that the defense secretary’s record justified continued party support.
On Monday, outgoing Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie reintroduced eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of exceeding his authority through military action in Iran, Yemen, Venezuela and international waters.
In a separate post-midterm interview with 60 Minutes, Trump acknowledged that Republicans had sustained a major defeat but stressed that his name had not been on the ballot.
He argued that party candidates struggled to inherit his personal support and cited the war, gasoline prices and attitudes toward Israel as factors in the result.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Emma Lee-Sang
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