President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped as the U.S. enters a second weekend with funding for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) under debate.
According to new survey results from Emerson College Polling, Trump’s approval rating dropped four points from October to November and is now at 41%. His disapproval rating increased by one point, to 49%. The Economist’s Trump approval tracker also showed a recent drop to 39%.
“Nearly one year after he was elected, President Trump’s approval has flipped since the first Emerson College poll of the new administration,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. “Since his inauguration, Trump has lost support among key groups: Republican voters’ approval decreased 12 points from 91% to 79%, and his disapproval intensified among independent voters, from 44% to 51%, and Hispanics, from 39% to 54%.”
Survey responses were collected Monday and Tuesday, following an announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Congress-funded SNAP benefits would be paused on Nov. 1 due to the ongoing government shutdown. That was filed by a law suit from around two dozen attorneys general and a court ruling that the federal government would have to use contingency funds to make sure SNAP benefits were provided.
Approximately one in eight Americans rely on the anti-hunger program every month and nearly 40% of those recipients are children, per the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said that contingency funds would not be enough to cover November SNAP.
“There is a contingency fund at USDA,” she said. “But, that contingency fund – by the way doesn’t even cover, I think half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP – but it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded.”
When answering a reporter who asked Tuesday whether the Trump administration was complying with the order to fund SNAP from U.S. District Judge John McConnell, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “No, the administration is fully complying with that court order.”
However, she also said “it’s going to take some time to receive this money, because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position. We are digging into a contingency fund that’s supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war.”
Amy Howe of Howe on the Court noted that “McConnell initially offered the Trump administration a choice between quickly making partial payments from the emergency funds or fully funding the November benefits using funds from other sources,” with the Trump administration choosing the first option. States, including Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, began announcing plans to get SNAP benefits to residents Friday.
Howe also noted that McConnell ordered the Trump administration to pay the November benefits in full by Friday. Then, the administration appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit and at 9:17 p.m. EST on Friday night, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an administrative stay that the government had requested to give the court of appeals time to weigh in on the Trump administration’s motion for a stay pending appeal.
“The order states that ‘[t]his administrative stay will terminate forty-eight hours after the First Circuit’s resolution of the pending motion, which the First Circuit is expected to issue with dispatch,’” Howe reported.
In a Friday X post, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “A single district court in Rhode Island should not be able to seize center stage in the shutdown, seek to upend political negotiations that could produce swift political solutions for SNAP and other programs, and dictate its own preferences for how scarce federal funds should be spent.”
While issue makes its way through the courts, Democrats and Republicans in Congress continue to squabble over 2026 spending appropriations amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Republicans have repeatedly blamed Democrats for extending the shutdown, even putting messages up on government websites. Meanwhile, Democrats say Republicans refuse to negotiate healthcare issues.
As for Americans who rely on SNAP, NBC News reported this week that they were going without food. USA Today quoted a Des Moines, Iowa, woman named Tonya LaFarr, 47, who didn’t receive her SNAP benefits. She’s left relying on local food pantries, which have use limits and scarce options that are safe to eat with her diabetes.
“I don’t understand how they want us to survive,” LaFarr said, according to the outlet.
Beyond SNAP, the new Emerson polling data showed that the economy is a very important issue to 75% of voters, with housing affordability also high at 57%, and numerous layoff announcements this year have contributed to a dismal economic outlook for many. Of those who plan to vote in the upcoming Midterm elections, 43% said they will cast a ballot to oppose Trump, 29% will vote to express support for Trump, and 28% say Trump is not a factor in their vote.