Most voters say they are worse off under Trump, new poll says

Americans broadly believe that the economy is growing worse under President Donald Trump’s stewardship and say that they are personally worse off after a year and a half of his second presidency.

The findings are part of a poll conducted by Focaldata for the Financial Times and gauged Americans’ mood about Republican control of Washington as the midterms rapidly approach.

Overall, Americans of all political stripes say that they are in a financially worse position than they were on January 19, 2025, when Joe Biden concluded his presidency and prepared to hand over the keys. Roughly 53 percent of all registered voters, including nearly 25 percent of Republicans, said they were in a worse position now, as the war with Iran and other issues continue to drive up consumer costs, including the price of fuel.

The poll also found a clear advantage for Democrats on a midterm generic ballot, with 51 percent of Americans saying they’d vote for a Democrat over a Republican in November’s midterm elections. 45 percent preferred the Republican.

It’s a plethora of warning signs for Trump and his party as they seek to hold on to majorities in both chambers of Congress this fall. On the issue of jobs and the economy, more voters said they trusted Democrats over Republicans — possibly the worst sign in the poll for the GOP, which credited support on those issues for Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in 2024.

The president’s approval rating remains grim. The poll found 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the job he’s doing, and his support among Republicans is slowly beginning to crack.

One in five now disapprove of his performance so far through his second term. His approval rating among Republicans dropped eight points between this latest poll, released Sunday, and FT’s previous survey in July.

Democrats need to pick up four seats in the Senate and the same number in the House to win double majorities in Congress next year. Doing so in either chamber would effectively put a stop to any partisan legislation for the next two years, effectively neutering the GOP’s agenda apart from what the president and his Cabinet secretaries can achieve at the executive level.

The retaking of both chambers even theoretically opens the door to the possibility of a third round of impeachment proceedings, but Democratic leaders have backed away from such inclinations in public statements and interviews as the midterms approach.

More likely is the prospect of Democrats seeking to expose the administration to political damage through congressional investigations if they retake the House or Senate. Democrats have already pledged to investigate the Trump family’s financial dealings, which have included record-setting profits under his second presidency.

Several committees are also eyeing the use of congressional subpoena power to investigate the firings and institutional changes wrought by Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative.

Republicans have endured the narrowest of margins in the House for more than a year, which has left the chamber constantly at war with itself and made passage of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” last year an arduous task.