Two-thirds of Americans say country is headed in the wrong direction: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll

As the Iran war has pushed the global economy into an oil crisis and gas prices reach a four-year high, Americans’ ratings of President Donald Trump on several issues are deeply underwater with majorities disapproving of how he is handling every issue measured, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.

Despite strongly negative headwinds for Trump and his party, Democrats are leading but not running away with the midterm elections at this point.

Trump’s approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this presidential term, and his 62% disapproval rating is a record high over both presidential terms.

The poll finds Trump is also underwater on managing every issue measured, as two-thirds of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction and Democrats’ midterm lead over Republicans has increased slightly to 5 points.

Trump’s approval rating

Trump’s approval rating has ticked down slightly from 39% in February to 37% and his disapproval has notched up slightly from 60% to 62%, similar to his ratings upon leaving office for his first term, shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building by violent pro-Trump supporters.

Trump’s overall approval rating is buoyed by his party’s faithful. Fully 85% of Republicans approve of Trump, a figure that has not budged much in his second term. But the share of Republicans who strongly approve of Trump has dropped. Currently, 45% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump, down from 53% in September and the lowest among Republicans across both terms. 

Among MAGA Republicans, 95% approve overall, including 61% who approve strongly. Overall approval falls to 64% among non-MAGA Republicans with just 13% of non-MAGA Republicans approving strongly. MAGA Republicans are self-described supporters of the MAGA movement and make up 66% of the Republican Party, according to this poll.

Trump’s approval rating among independents has dropped to a record low for both of his terms. Just 25% approve of the job he is doing overall, down from 30% in October and higher in his first term.

About three-quarters of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living in the U.S. (76%) with just about a quarter approving (23%). Nearly as many disapprove of how he’s handling inflation (72%), up from 65% who disapproved in February. Under 3 in 10 approve of how Trump is handling inflation. In his campaign for president, Trump repeatedly promised to lower costs for Americans. 

About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy (65%) — a record high over both of Trump’s presidential terms and roughly the same as then-President Joe Biden’s worst rating on the economy in ABC/Post polling in September 2023 (64%). 

Similar shares of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the situation with Iran (66%) as well as relations with U.S. allies (65%), while about a third approve of how he is handling each. A majority of Americans say the U.S. using military force against Iran was a mistake.

About 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling taxes and just under 4 in 10 approve — an issue he had hoped to win over Americans with this spring. 

“Every single American at every income level — there’s more money in their pockets this week because of the Republican tax policies,” Trump said earlier this month at a roundtable event touting his “no tax on tips” policy.

On immigration, 59% disapprove and 40% approve, virtually the same as his ratings in February, and showing little to no movement months after Trump’s Operation Metro Surge where federal immigration and border agents were deployed across Minnesota to enforce immigration laws, detaining thousands and killing two U.S. citizens.

Trump’s best issue is handling the immigration situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, where 54% disapprove and 45% approve. Still, those are slightly worse ratings than he received in February ABC/Post/Ipsos polling.

Nearly half of Americans (46%) say Trump is “too conservative.” 

In addition to the issues, about 7 in 10 Americans say Trump is not honest and trustworthy, two-thirds say he does not carefully consider important decisions and about 6 in 10 say he does not have the mental sharpness to serve as president. Over half say Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve effectively as president (55%) and that he is not a strong leader (54%).

Despite promising to “drain the swamp” and clean up government waste, roughly half of Americans say the amount of corruption in Washington has increased since Trump took office last year (49%), about 3 in 10 say it has stayed the same and about 2 in 10 say it has decreased.

Midterms

At this stage of the election cycle, Democrats are more motivated and more likely to say these midterm elections are important. Also, independents prefer Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives by a wide margin.

Among registered voters, 49% say that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if midterms were held today and 44% say they would vote for the Republican, a statistically significant 5-point margin, and up slightly from the 2-point edge Democrats had in February and October ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos polls.

Before the last midterms, in an April 2022 ABC/Post poll, registered voters were split about evenly between the two parties and Republicans won Congress. In an April 2018 ABC/Post poll, Democrats led by 4 points and Democrats went on to win the House in November.    

Among independent voters, the poll finds Democrats have a wide 20-point lead over Republicans, 52% to 32%. In April 2022, they were split evenly (42%-42%) and in 2018, they supported Democrats by just 6 points (44%-38%). 

Nearly all Democratic voters say they would support their party’s House candidate and Republican voters say the same about their party’s candidate. About two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Republican leaders should follow Trump’s leadership compared to the just about one-third who say the party should be led in a different direction.

Democratic voters also have a wide lead on how important they view the election: 61% say their vote this year is “much more important” than past midterm elections, compared to 35% of Republicans who say the same. Shortly before the 2022 midterms, in a September ABC/Post poll, similar shares of Democratic (39%) and Republican (38%) voters said that voting that year was much more important.

And when it comes to certainty to vote, 79% of Democratic registered voters say they are “absolutely certain to vote” — unchanged from February. But Republican voters are narrowing the gap. Today, 72% of Republicans say they are certain to vote, up from 65% in February. 

Trust on issues

Even with Trump’s low approval ratings and Democrats’ edge in the vote choice question, Americans don’t trust Democrats much more to handle issues and slightly more say Democrats are too liberal than say Republicans are too conservative.

Just over half of Americans, 53%, say that the Democratic Party is too liberal, slightly more than the 49% who say the Republican Party is too conservative. Among independents, 50% say the Democratic Party is too liberal, inching up to 53% who say the Republican Party is too conservative.

On 11 separate issues measured, Americans trust Democrats more on just three issues, Republicans on only two issues and are divided between the two parties on the remaining issues. 

Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, education and the cost of living.

Historically, Democrats have had a lead over Republicans on handling healthcare and education. Today, Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare by 17 points and to handle education and schools by 8 points. They trust Democrats over Republicans to handle the cost of living by a smaller margin, 5 points.

Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats on immigration and crime. On immigration, the Republican lead has narrowed to 5 points, compared to a 12-point margin they enjoyed in a November 2023 ABC/Ipsos poll. But in an ABC/Ipsos poll in October 2022, the two parties were only 3 points apart.

Republican’s 14-point lead on trust to handle crime over Democrats is in line with where it was in 2022 and 2023 ABC/Ipsos polling. 

And Americans are split roughly evenly on whether they trust either party more on handling the economy, inflation, taxes, corruption, Iran and AI.

Republicans have generally led on the economy, and the last time the two parties were tied was in 2014. But now the public is split between the parties on this issue: Republicans (34%) and Democrats (33%). 

On inflation, Americans divide roughly three ways between trusting Democrats (31%), Republicans (30%) and neither of them (33%) — which is an improvement for Democrats from the past. In ABC/Ipsos polling dating back to 2022, Republicans have had a double-digit lead over Democrats on handling inflation and even larger leads in ABC/Post telephone polls between 1990 and 2022.

And Americans are also split three ways on handling taxes between Republicans (34%), Democrats (31%) and neither (30%). They were roughly tied in ABC News/Ipsos polling in 2022 and ABC/Post telephone polls in 2018. 

On corruption, a 44% plurality say they trust neither party, with 26% say they trust each party more.

On Iran, Americans are split roughly three ways on whether they trust Democrats, Republicans or neither party. On AI, 51% say they trust neither party.

Direction of country and Trump policy decisions

Two-thirds of Americans say the country is moving in the wrong direction, including over 9 in 10 Democrats and nearly 8 in 10 independents. MAGA Republicans are much more likely to say the country is moving in the right direction (87%) than non-MAGA Republicans (49%).

Four different policies Trump campaigned on or were later enacted by his administration are all deeply unpopular.

The Trump administration has deeply slashed federal medical research funding and 78% oppose this, including majorities of Democrats (90%), Republicans (65%) and independents (79%). Even 60% of MAGA Republicans oppose reducing federal funding for medical research.

The White House has requested a record $1.5 trillion for defense spending. About two-thirds of Americans (65%) oppose increasing U.S. military spending from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, including majorities of Democrats (87%) and independents (75%). Two-thirds of Republicans (67%) support this, rising to 76% among MAGA Republicans.

Trump has argued to end birthright citizenship in the U.S., saying children born to parents who are not American citizens or legal permanent residents should not automatically become citizens because they still owe political “allegiance” to a foreign nation. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the case last month. 

About two-thirds of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship (65%), including about 9 in 10 Democrats and 7 in 10 independents. Roughly 6 in 10 Republicans support this, rising to nearly three-quarters of MAGA Republicans.

The Supreme Court is also considering the Trump administration ending humanitarian protections for thousands of immigrants without facing judicial review. About 6 in 10 Americans oppose ending temporary legal status for migrants from conflict-ridden countries, including 84% of Democrats and 64% of independents. About two-thirds of Republicans (68%) support this, rising to 76% of MAGA Republicans.

Administration approvals

In addition to Trump’s low approval rating, members of his administration do not fare much better, but larger numbers of Americans have no opinion of them.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who Trump appointed in his first term, but is not technically part of his administration, fares better: 36% of Americans approve of him, 29% disapprove and 35% say they have no opinion. Trump has criticized Powell over the Fed’s rate policy. His term as chairman ends in May.

While 35% approve of Vice President JD Vance, 48% disapprove.

Just 31% approve of the job Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing as secretary of Health and Human Services with 50% disapproving and 19% saying they have no opinion. Fully 4 in 10 disapprove of him strongly.

FBI Director Kash Patel is close behind with 27% approving and 46% disapproving and another 27% with no opinion. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also underwater, with 33% approving and 40% disapproving and another 27% with no opinion.

Methodology — This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted among 2,560 U.S. adults overall and has an error margin of +/- 2 percentage points. Error margins are larger among subgroups.

See PDF for full results and detailed methodology.

ABC News’ Liz Schreier contributed to this report.

Email ABCNEWS.Polls@abc.com to be added to ABC News’ polling distribution list.

More ABC News polls can be found at abcnews.com. Media contacts: Jeannie Kedas and Van Scott. 

Previous releases: 

Americans oppose Trump ballroom 2-to-1; even more oppose his signature on money: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll

Americans are increasingly bleak about their own finances, most say using the US military against Iran was a mistake: ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll