October 19, 2026, 5:55 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a new record low, with less than a third of Americans approving of the president’s job performance, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The poll, released Oct. 19, found Trump’s approval rating at 31 percent, the lowest the president has seen according to Reuters/Ipsos in any term, and down one point from his previous career low recorded two weeks ago.
The president’s declining approval rating comes as early voting has begun in several states, with Republicans facing an uphill battle to maintain a slim majority in Congress.
Democrats currently lead the Republican Party by 12 percentage points in a wildcard congressional runoff, the largest lead the party has held according to Reuters/Ipsos tracking this election cycle.
The four-day Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,679 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad polls
Trump’s poor poll follows two other scathing polls released on October 18.
In a new Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll, Trump’s approval rating reached an all-time high for the pollster, hitting 33 percent. This is a drop of 4 points compared to a July survey and 8 points compared to that of October 2025.
The same poll finds that, for the first time in a decade, Democrats are trusted more than Republicans to manage the economy.
In an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released the same day, Trump’s approval rating fell to a second-term low of 34%, with 51% of respondents “strongly disapproving” of the president’s job performance. Among Latino voters, who turned to Trump in 2024, the president’s approval rating stood at 31%.
In another record for the president’s second term, 71% said the country was on the “wrong track,” up 10 percentage points from another April 2025 poll.
The same poll also found that Democrats were 10 percentage points ahead of the Republican Party in a generic congressional runoff.
Poll averages show one continuous slide
Including the three bad polls for the president over the past two days, the broader polling averages also show Trump sliding into even deeper negative territory.
As of Monday, October 19, the RealClearPolitics average showed Trump with a 38.9% approval rating and a 59.3% disapproval rating. The New York Times polling average had Trump at 37% approval and 61% disapproval, while Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin average showed 37.5% approval and 59.9% disapproval.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
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