Trump’s popularity problem heading into the 2026 U.S. midterms

The first two years of Donald Trump's current mandate have proved incredibly divisive. Still, he has spent the last few weeks on the campaign trail stumping for Republicans and making a repeated request to his loyalists, hoping to push them to the polls. Do me a favor, pretend. Just pretend that I'm running. Pretend I'm on the ballot, because if you get out, we're going to win big. But outside of his tight-knit circle of ardent supporters Trump has a serious popularity problem. In the Trump era, Americans is not who we are. We are better than that. Take a look at his approval rating since inauguration day based on a daily average of polls analyzed by the New York Times. He was at 52% in January of 2025. Since then he slipped down, down, down to about 37%. As of October 29th, that is lower even than his lowest point during his first term. Lower than Joe Biden, lower than Barack Obama, lower than George W. Bush. And voters list plenty of grievances. Gas prices, food, rent, people are suffering. We're fighting a war in another country. Our fuel prices are through the roof. The health care prices have went higher, not lower. People are tired of seeing all the negativity, the embarrassment. But Trump's base hasn't abandoned him. Many voters still support his policies. He's done everything that he said he's going to do, and he's absolutely the best president that I've ever experienced. I mean, he's incredible. Donald Trump, you know, he's more like us. You know what I mean? He's a real guy, you know, that is just trying to make the country a better place. And his rallies still draw a crowd even if more protesters seem to attend. These are paid protesters. They're paid by enemies of our nation. Showing up is important in any election. Tonight we find out if Trump's pleas to imagine he is on the ballot pay off or backfire.