Trump approval mired near record low: Survey

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President Trump’s approval rating remains near the lowest level of his political career as Americans said they expect gasoline prices to continue rising due to the Iran war, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

In the survey released Monday, 35 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s job performance in the White House. The figure is just above the 34 percent approval rating recorded in Reuters polls in April and mid-May — the lowest of Trump’s second term — and close to his first-term low of 33 percent in December 2017.

Trump has faced mounting political pressures ahead of the 2026 midterm election cycle as economic concerns and affordability issues, including surging gas prices, continue to weigh on Americans.

While the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and greater impacts of the Iran war have choked off oil supply, drivers have enjoyed some relief over the past two weeks as the national average price of a gallon of gas is down for the first time since the war began on Feb. 28.

The national average price of a gallon of gas stood at $4.24 on Monday, down 18 cents since last week, according to AAA. In late February, the average gallon of gas was less than $3.

But as Trump continues to negotiate a peace deal with Tehran, uncertainty about when the strait will fully reopen and resume traffic means oil prices likely won’t decrease much during the summer months when the demand for gas is higher.

The Trump administration has characterized the surging oil prices as a temporary issue resulting from the war that will end once a deal is made, and has proposed eliminating gas taxes as a way to calm the cost burdens.

In May, Trump dismissed concerns about hiked costs, telling reporters, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations,” while negotiating with Iran. “Not even a little bit.

“I don’t think about anybody,” he continued. “I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Nearly 60 percent of Americans expect gas prices to worsen in the next year, compared to 17 percent who thought they would get better, according to the poll. The remaining 23 percent of respondents said they were unsure where the prices would go or that they would remain the same.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll on Trump’s job approval collected responses from 4,531 U.S. adults form June 3-8 in an online survey. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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