The Latest: Trump hits the campaign trail as a new AP-NORC poll shows his deepening unpopularity
Oct 1, 2026, 5:35 AM
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Americans are deeply frustrated with President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy and rising prices. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.
The new numbers come as Trump and Vice President JD Vance hit the campaign trail on Thursday, heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Trump will go to Texas and Oklahoma while Vance stumps in Florida, areas where GOP candidates were once expected to glide to victory but are now facing tougher races.
The Latest:
The president, in an early morning social media post, credited the “GREAT Boeing Company” with building a plane “that was able to withstand G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do.”
On Wednesday, a copilot stabbed his captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates that was carrying 174 people. Passengers, most of them Israelis, feared for their lives as the FlyDubai aircraft lost half its altitude in about a minute.
Aviation experts were also surprised the plane did not crash after a descent so extreme that most of the rudder was ripped off the tail.
“It is about time that The Boeing Company, which builds, by far, the finest commercial airliners in the sky, was given credit for this airplane’s incredible ‘genius!’” Trump added in his posting about the Arlington, Virginia-based aircraft manufacturer.
Just 26% approve of Trump’s handling of the economy overall, marking a new low in AP-NORC polling.
Trump’s numbers on the economy represent a 14-point drop from March 2025, just after he took office for the second time. His struggles on the issue mark a significant departure from his first term, when the economy was often a point of strength.
Trump’s low grade on the economy rivals President Joe Biden’s economic approval rating in June 2022, when there was record-high inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Americans were less likely to blame Biden in the lead-up to that year’s midterm elections, a sharp contrast to the solid majority who hold Trump responsible now.
Americans have grown more worried about being able to afford basics like groceries and gas over the last few months, the new AP-NORC poll shows.
About half of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford gas in the coming months, up from 39% in July.
And about half are highly concerned about being able to afford food.
Pedro Sanchez, a 52-year-old from California who voted for Trump told the AP: “I used to have a lot more disposable income. I don’t have that anymore. It’s gotten eaten up because of all these increases in the cost of everything.”
Americans are deeply frustrated with rising prices under President Trump, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
Only 17% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s handling of the cost of living. That frustration is also reaching Republicans. About 6 in 10 Republicans now disapprove of how Trump is handling costs, up from about half in April.
Robert Gault, a 66-year-old from Bradford, Pennsylvania, told the AP about Trump: “He said, ’Make America Great Again.′ And I have not seen him do that.”
Despite the overall frustration, about two-thirds of Republicans don’t blame Trump personally for high prices and say factors outside of his control are more to blame.
But Americans overall disagree. A majority, 65%, of U.S. adults blame Trump’s policies for persistently high costs more than factors outside of his control.
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President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Trump’s travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3. Vance will be stumping in Florida, putting the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races.
Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.
According to Trump, his party’s headwinds are merely a matter of poor public relations about a job he says is well done.
“We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.”
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