July 21, 2026, 4:20 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump’s polling woes continue as his approval rating remains near record lows in a new Economist/YouGov poll, with just 36% of Americans saying they approve of his performance as president.
The poll, released July 21, also found Trump’s net approval sits at -24%, only two percentage points better than his worst net approval in either of his terms in the White House. The president’s net approval is currently lower than the lowest net approval former President Joe Biden saw, which was -23%.
Outside of weak approval ratings, Trump’s age has become a talking point among voters. In the same poll, 52% of respondents said that Trump is too old to be president, an increase of 12 percentage points from January.
The poll was conducted between July 17 and July 20, with 1602 respondents. According to YouGov, the margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Unpopular Trump could boost Democrats
Trump’s continued unpopularity with Americans could boost Democrats’ chances of regaining control of Congress in November. Monday’s poll showed Democrats leading the GOP by five percentage points in a generic Congressional ballot.
That same trend has held in other polls.
On July 16, an Ipsos/Washington Post poll found Democrats leading Republicans by three percentage points, and a day later on July 17, CNBC’s poll found Democrats leading by four points.
Trump underwater in the economy and immigration policies
The economy and immigration are hot-button issues for respondents, many of whom don’t believe the president is doing a good job of handling either.
Monday’s poll found that 47% of respondents said the U.S. economy is in a poor state, according to YouGov; that is the highest level seen in any of their polls since 2023.
Immigration, usually Trump’s strongest issue with voters, saw the president underwater, with 54% of respondents saying they disapproved of his handling of the issue. The same poll found that 48% of Americans supported the abolishing of ICE, while 40% did not approve.
What is Trump’s approval average?
Trump’s approval rating has been net negative for more than a year, and has fluctuated but trended more negative over the past several months. Here is Trump’s average approval rating, according to aggregators:
USA TODAY’s Kinsey Crowley contributed to this report.
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_.
