President Donald Trump’s approval for handling the economy was 25% in an October Reuters/Ipsos poll, as U.S. voters prepare to elect a new Congress on Nov. 3.
The survey also found 20% approval for Trump’s handling of the cost of living and 32% approval of his overall job performance. Ipsos said it surveyed 1,679 U.S. adults from Oct. 22-26 and reported a 2.4-percentage-point margin of sampling error among all adults.
An AP-NORC survey conducted Sept. 24-28 found 26% approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 73% disapproved. AP-NORC’s March 20-24, 2025, survey recorded 40% approval, making the September result 14 percentage points lower. The September poll included 2,140 adults and had a 2.9-point margin of sampling error among all adults.
On prices, 65% of respondents in the AP-NORC survey said higher-than-usual costs were more due to Trump’s policies than to factors outside his control; 33% chose factors outside his control. Sixty-nine percent said his handling of the cost of living had been worse than they expected. Those figures report respondents’ views and do not establish what caused prices to rise.
In the Reuters/Ipsos generic congressional ballot, 53% of likely voters favored or leaned toward the Democratic candidate in their district, compared with 44% for the Republican. The survey also found 34% preferred Democrats to handle the economy, against 28% who preferred Republicans. Ipsos said Republicans had held a 17-point advantage on that question in January 2025.
The Associated Press reported that Robert Gault, a 66-year-old retired factory worker from Bradford, Pennsylvania, who described himself as a Republican, said: “I was hoping it would be better or different, but it’s not really good.”
The one-point difference between the September and October economic approval results comes from separate polls by different organizations, not a measured shift within one survey. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) calendar sets the federal general election for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.
