(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hong Jeong-gyu = With U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating hitting another low, the Republican Party's prospects for the midterm elections have become even darker.
According to a public opinion poll commissioned by Ipsos by the Washington Post (WP) and ABC and released on the 18th (local time), the approval rating for President Trump's performance of state affairs was found to be 33%. It fell 4 percentage points (p) from the survey in July, and is the lowest since the second term of administration.
66% of respondents did not support President Trump's performance of state affairs, and 52% of them strongly opposed it.
In a poll released by NBC News on this day, President Trump's approval rating hit a low of 34%. Disapproval of President Trump's performance of state affairs rose to 66%, with 51% of those responding strongly disapproving.
In a previous opinion poll released by right-wing, pro-Republican Fox News on the 14th, President Trump's approval rating was 36%, the lowest during his first and second terms in office.
In this WP/ABC survey, when asked whether they preferred a Democratic-led Congress or a Republican-led Congress, 58% chose the Democratic Party and 39% chose the Republican Party. The 19% point gap between the two parties is approximately twice that of the survey from a year ago.
75% of Democratic voters said they would definitely vote. Among Republicans, 75% of MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters said they would definitely vote, but among non-MAGA Republicans, this percentage dropped to 57%.
Economic problems, especially inflation, were the biggest cause of President Trump's decline in approval ratings. Opposition to economic policy and cost of living issues was 70% and 77%, respectively.
The economic policy approval rating was only 28%, compared to 41% in February and 33% in July of this year. At the same time in 2018, the midterm election of Trump's first term in office, the approval rating for economic policies was 49%.
48% of respondents said their financial situation has worsened since President Trump came back to power. This is the highest figure in a survey conducted by WP and ABC on past presidents since 1986. Among respondents who complained of financial difficulties, 78% preferred the Democratic Party in congressional elections. 71% of independent voters also preferred the Democratic Party.
In a February survey before the start of the Iran war, 71% of respondents said they could afford the price of gasoline. Now, the perception of the burden of gas prices has changed, with 71% of respondents saying, ‘It is difficult to afford the price of gasoline.’
The majority of respondents said they had difficulty covering food, medical, and home energy costs, and less than 4 out of 10 said they could afford the cost of eating out.
Regarding the Iran war, 65% pointed out that it was President Trump's mistake. 68% also disapproved of the way President Trump treated his allies. The majority of responses were negative regarding the response to immigration issues and the method of deporting illegal immigrants.
In particular, among respondents who voted for President Trump in the 2024 presidential election, 23% did not support his overall performance of state affairs, 31% opposed his economic management, and 38% criticized his response to inflation. It is highly likely that many of these people will not vote in the midterm elections at all.
The response rate that President Trump is accumulating wealth using his position was found to be 66%. Regarding President Trump's desire to name the Kennedy Center in Washington DC after himself, approximately 80% responded that it was inappropriate.
Respondents ranked the Democratic Party (40%) as the party they trust more in handling economic issues than the Republican Party (33%). In the WP/ABC opinion poll, this is the first time since 2014 that the Democratic Party showed an advantage over the Republican Party in trustworthiness on economic issues.
WP analyzed, "Although 54% of American adults have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party is perceived as a more trustworthy party on many issues. This may be because an even larger number of Americans, 63%, dislike the Republican Party."
The WP/ABC opinion poll was conducted on 2,545 American adults from the 9th to the 13th and was adjusted based on the Pew Research Center's political party inclinations of Americans. The margin of error is ±2%p.
The NBC News poll was commissioned by Survey Monkey and conducted on 19,135 adults from the 29th of last month to the 12th of this month, with a margin of error of ±2.6%p.
