Late last week, Donald Trump published an odd boast to his social media platform. “TRUMP Approval Rating in the Republican Party is now 95%, A RECORD,” the president wrote, referring to himself in the third person. “Second place is Ronald Reagan at 86%. Thank you!”
He didn’t say whom, exactly, he was thanking, which was just as well since Trump was referring to polling data that does not appear to exist outside of his own overactive imagination.
But if the president believes his approval rating among GOP voters is of interest, I’m inclined to agree. In fact, he might be interested to learn just how wrong he was about his level of support among his own party. As this week got underway, Reuters reported:
President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to 32% — the lowest of his political career — as his fellow Republicans soured on his handling of the cost of living amid the unpopular Iran war, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Trump’s overall approval was down from a reading of 35% in last week’s Reuters/Ipsos poll, with support among his own Republicans down to 73% from 82% a week earlier.
Yes, right around the time that Trump was pointing to made-up survey data that he claimed showed a 95% approval rating among GOP voters, the Reuters/Ipsos poll was in the field — and finding the president’s support slipping to 73% among Republicans.
Adding insult to injury, when one unpacks the data further, the number of GOP voters who said they “strongly” approve of the president is down to just 30%.
This dovetails with the latest national polling from Fox News and Quinnipiac University, which also found Trump’s support among Republicans falling below 80% for the first time since his first term.
The latest CNN poll, meanwhile, showed GOP voters souring on the war with Iran, on Trump’s trade war with Canada and even on the international impact of the White House’s agenda.
I emphasize all of this, not to fact-check the president’s obviously absurd online boast but to highlight the broader electoral context: Trump and his party decided months ago to nationalize the midterms, to make the president the centerpiece of the GOP’s strategy and to generate excitement among Trump supporters in the Republican base. That was ostensibly the whole point of the party’s hapless midterm convention.
Except that it didn’t work. With six weeks before Election Day 2026, GOP voters aren’t just unenthusiastic about their party, they’re increasingly unimpressed by their party’s president.
It’s exactly the opposite of what Republican strategists hoped — and by some measures, expected — to see at this point in the midterm cycle.
The post As the midterms near, Trump’s support among Republican voters slips sharply appeared first on MS NOW.
