More than a week out from the midterm elections, new polling from The Economist/YouGov shows that President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to a record low of 32%, with 52% of those polled saying they “strongly” disapprove of the how he’s handling the job.
“Before the midterm elections we forecast that the Democrats would probably take the House and possibly the Senate,” said The Economist this week. “We were wrong in being so cautious: they won the House with the biggest popular vote margin in 50 years, and won Senate seats that they could hardly have dreamed of in Mississippi and South Carolina. That was due to Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity: he repeatedly told voters to vote as if he were on the ballot, and it seems they did.”
While it was clear on election night that a blue wave had swept through the U.S., picking up seats in Republican strongholds like Texas and Kansas, the wave hasn’t stopped. This week, it became clear that Democrat Scott Colom is now the first Black senator elected in Mississippi and as of Saturday, it looked like Democrat Mary Peltola would win the Alaska senate race. Colorado Sen. Lauren Boebert, one of Trump’s MAGA loyalists, lost her seat to Democrat Eileen Laubacher.
Ahead of the midterms, months with national average gas prices above $4 put stress on voters, along with overall inflation. According to The Economist/YouGov polling, 23% of those polled said that inflation is the main issue facing the nation today. A 67% majority of those polled said they disapprove of how the president is handling the economy.
AAA data from Saturday showed that national average gas prices have come down below $4, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index report released this week showed that inflation increased 0.4% last month. That’s on top of a 0.6% increase in September.
“Trumpflation (inflation caused by the president’s policies) is becoming more entrenched in the U.S. economy,” said the Motley Fool in an article published Friday.
It noted that investors have flourished under Trump during both his first and second terms. However, regular consumers have been struggling, and the Motley Fool sees trouble for the stock market on the horizon too.
Until January, Republicans still hold control over both chambers of Congress. Democrats had a chance to move on an attempt to impeach Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, led this week by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, but lost it when nearly a dozen members of their party missed the vote.
Trump’s move to join Israel to attack Iran has had a direct impact on the high gas prices, as it set of Iran’s blockades of the Strait of Hormuz. It has also been generally unpopular among voters but the conflict persisted as of this weekend following multiple attempts to come to a peace agreement throughout this year.
Massie told Fox News Digital that he plans to bring another Iran War Powers resolution before lawmakers by Christmastime. Per the outlet, others Republicans could break with the president and support this measure.
