Over his second term in office, Donald Trump has seen lower approval ratings than any president in the history of our country. Now, we can see this astronomical shift reflected in our midterm elections.
Approval ratings
In the most recent Ipsos/Reuters poll, Trump’s approval rating is sitting at a measly 32%. This is the lowest he has seen his approval rating, and currently lower than Biden’s ever was while he was in office (35.6%).
The unnecessary Iran war has heavily influenced the decrease in Trump’s approval. He got the US into this war around February 2026, leaving at least 23 US troops dead. According to some reports, nearly depleted our entire missile stock at the Pentagon. Trump’s unpopularity has impacted the public perceptions of Republican Party and Supreme Court approval ratings. The public has also scrutinized the approval ratings of Trump’s cabinet.
Based on the attitude of the government and the drop-in support for Trump, Trump clearly thinks that he is untouchable. He believes he can’t lose support no matter what he does.
He thinks that there are no repercussions for his actions because quite frankly… there haven’t been any.
History of controversy and accountability
He claims the 2020 election was stolen and stages a coup on the government and then wins another Presidency in 2024. He starts an unnecessary war in Iran that has killed multiple United States military members. Yet, there is no public reprimand.
Honestly, Trump ran on the promise he would release the Epstein files and then he had one of the worst handled justice cases in American history. The approval and lack of accountability he has faced from his own party is something that has never been seen before. That lack of pushback is coming back to haunt the republicans in the midterms.
Midterm fallout
Trump knows that Republican voters turn out in significantly higher numbers when he is on the ballot. His approach has been to tell voters to vote in the midterms as if he was on the ballot. The problem with this strategy is that Trump is so unpopular it challenges candidates who appear alongside him.
Ashley Hinson, the Republican candidate running in the Iowa senate race, has started to publicly condemn the Iran war at her rallies and in her political ads. This is because she knows that getting on board with Trump will hurt her in a competitive race.
Similarly in states like Kansas and Texas, Trump briefly said he would cancel his rallies because there were inside staffers encouraging him to stay away from the competitive races.
Changing political landscape
Both parties have long acknowledged that the house would not remain under Republican majority. However, the shift in the polling and forecasting towards the Democrats draws attention to the changing political landscape.
Republicans have started pulling money away from Senate races that were previously expected to be competitive in North Carolina and Georgia. They have decided to refocus that money towards states that were previously not considered to be competitive.
Republicans are now defending states like Iowa, Kansas and Texas to hold onto solidly red states. And now the South Carolina and Mississippi senate races are getting that money redirected towards the previously unthinkable democratic pickups.
Downfall
Ultimately, the pushback with the Republican Party can be drawn back to Donald Trump and his administration. They became the most unpopular administrations that has ever led the country and have only been doubling down on their stances.
The administration’s unpopularity arises from many factors. Factors such as the Iran war, cost of living, gas prices, political retribution and the handling of the Epstein Files. When people think of the Republican Party they think of Trump. Because Trump is so hated, he has blown any chance to legally pass anything of note for the rest of his presidency.
