President Donald Trump’s approval rating has now hits an unthinkable all-time low, with a wave of fresh polling conducted in late February and early March 2026 showing numbers that no sitting American president has recorded in nearly seven decades. Across nearly every major polling organization in the country, Trump is sitting below 40 percent approval, his net disapproval is in record territory, and the voters who once formed the core of his 2024 coalition are walking away in significant numbers. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten put it simply: “I don’t really know who to even compare Donald Trump to, because he’s just so low.”
The most current data comes from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted February 27 through March 2, 2026. It found that 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, while 59 percent disapprove. That gives him a net approval rating of negative 21, the second lowest he has ever recorded in this polling series across both terms. More striking is the intensity of the opposition: 51 percent of Americans say they strongly disapprove of his performance. That is the first time in either of his two terms that a majority has hit that “strongly disapprove” threshold.
The CNN/SSRS poll, conducted February 17 through 20 among 2,496 adults, put Trump’s overall approval at 36 percent, with 63 percent disapproving. That is a 12-point drop from the 48 percent approval he held in CNN polling just one year ago.
The AP-NORC survey from February 5 through 8 also showed 36 percent approval and 62 percent disapproval. The Quinnipiac University poll from late January found 37 percent approve, 56 percent disapprove. The Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll from February 12 through 17 recorded 39 percent approval and 60 percent disapproval. The Reuters/Ipsos poll from February 13 through 16 showed 38 percent approval and 60 percent disapproval. The CBS/YouGov poll conducted February 20 through 23 found 40 percent approve and 60 percent disapprove, with 53 percent of respondents saying the country is worse off than it was a year ago.
Even pollsters that typically show more favorable numbers for Republicans are reflecting the damage. Morning Consult’s February 13-16 survey found 43 percent approval and 55 percent disapproval, a net negative 12 points that marks a record low for Morning Consult in Trump’s second term. The Emerson College poll from February 21 through 22 recorded 43 percent approval and 55 percent disapproval, with disapproval jumping four points in a single month. The Harvard CAPS/HarrisX survey found 45 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval, and for the first time, 51 percent of voters in that poll said Trump is doing a worse job than Joe Biden.
Enten presented four separate polls on CNN on February 17 and found that every single one had hit a second-term low. “AP-NORC: 26 points below water. NBC: 22 points below water. Yahoo/YouGov: 20 points below water. Quinnipiac: 19 points below water,” he told anchor Kate Bolduan. “There’s this question that folks keep asking: where is the floor for Donald Trump? And I’m not sure there is a floor, because if there is one, Donald Trump, at least in term number two, has just fallen through it.”
The Cook Political Report’s aggregated PollTracker shows Trump’s overall approval now at 41.0 percent, down from 47.3 percent when Cook began tracking it roughly one year ago. His net approval has dropped from nearly even, at negative 1.6 percent in March 2025, to negative 15.3 percent today. That is a 14-point deterioration in 12 months. USA Today notes that a 36 percent approval rating at a midterm election year would represent a seven-decade low for any sitting president, with only Harry Truman in 1946 recording a lower figure, at 33 percent.
The collapse is not happening evenly. Independent voters, whose support helped return Trump to the White House in 2024, have moved against him sharply. The CNN poll found that only 26 percent of independents now approve of Trump’s job performance, down 15 points over the past year and the lowest reading in either of his two terms. Among Americans aged 18 to 34, approval has fallen 16 points. Among adults aged 35 to 49, the drop is 19 points. Among Latino Americans, approval is down 19 points. The Cook Political Report found that fewer than 30 percent of independent voters now give Trump a positive rating on his overall performance.
Even within his own party, the enthusiasm is fading. Strong approval among Republicans stood at 49 percent in the CNN poll, the first time during this term it has dropped below 50 percent, down from 64 percent just after his address to Congress one year ago.
The economy is the clearest driver of the discontent. When the CNN poll asked Americans what issue they most wanted Trump to address in his State of the Union speech on February 24, 57 percent named the economy and cost of living, more than four times the share who named any other individual topic. Only 32 percent of Americans now say Trump has had the right priorities in office, while 68 percent say he has not paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems. That is the most negative reading on that question in either of his terms. A full 61 percent say Trump’s policies will move the country in the wrong direction, compared to 38 percent who say the right direction.
On immigration, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found his approval on the issue has fallen to 38 percent, the lowest of his second term and down sharply from 50 percent when he took office. The AP-NORC survey found that 62 percent of Americans say the deployment of federal immigration agents into U.S. cities has gone too far. Among independents, that number stands at 60 percent. The killings of two American citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month added further fuel to the backlash. University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index has dropped 20 percent since Trump took office, currently sitting at 57.3, a level typically associated with economic downturns.
Trump dismissed the polling on Truth Social, claiming without evidence that his actual numbers are “much higher.” His administration has not provided alternative data to support that claim. With the midterm elections now nine months away and every major polling organization showing numbers in the mid-to-upper 30s, the political reality for Republicans running in competitive districts is becoming harder to ignore.
