Trump sees approval rating reprieve after weeks of record lows - USA Today

President Donald Trump’s approval rating found a sort of oasis in the desert, rising after weeks of record lows, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, Sept. 14.

The poll found that 35% of Americans approved of the president's job performance, up two percentage points from the previous Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released in early September. Trump’s slight improvement in the newest poll came after three straight weeks of the lowest approval numbers he had seen in Reuters/Ipsos tracking since his return to the White House in 2025.

But the president’s improvement did not trickle down to benefit his party; in a generic congressional ballot, Democrats lead Republicans by seven percentage points, the widest gap since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

According to Reuters/Ipsos, the four-day poll was conducted among 1,143 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Trump’s promise to give a $5,000 dividend to every American if Republicans kept control of Congress after November's midterm elections did not appease most voters, as a majority of Americans disapproved of the pledge.

According to the newest poll, 63% of Americans, including 4 in 10 Republicans and 9 in 10 Democrats, said they disapproved of Trump’s offer.

The president’s unpopularity with the American public has deepened as the war with Iran entered its sixth month and gas prices rose above a national average of $4.30 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.

Rising prices and Trump’s unpopularity have had a knock-on effect as a majority of voters chose Democrats over Republicans as the better stewards of the economy for the first time in about a decade of Reuters/Ipsos tracking.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.