Trump's approval on economy falls in AP-NORC poll, showing new warning signs for president

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s approval rating on the economy has slumped over the past month as the Iran war drives prices higher, according to a new AP-NORC poll, with even Republicans showing less faith in his leadership.

The findings from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research show a president who is struggling with unfulfilled promises to tame inflation and testing Americans’ patience with a conflict in the Middle East that has dragged on longer than expected.

Trump’s approval rating on the economy dropped to 30% in April from 38% in a March AP-NORC poll. A similarly low share of U.S. adults, 32%, approve of the president’s leadership on Iran, which is unchanged since last month.

The poll was conducted April 16-20, during which time the Strait of Hormuz was reopened by Iran, then closed again, an example of the whiplash that has characterized the conflict.

The president’s policies and pronouncements have often been at odds with each other. Gasoline prices — which he promised to slash — jumped after the U.S. attacked Iran in February. His tariffs have kept much of the economy in limbo and hiring has slowed despite his boasts of a “golden age.”

Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s overall job performance, down slightly from 38% last month.

Trump’s falling approval ratings could create problems for his party as it tries to defend House and Senate majorities in the midterm elections. The poll finds that Trump is especially weak on cost of living, and enthusiasm about Trump’s performance has waned over the past year among his own supporters.

Kathryn Bright, 60, a retired captain in the U.S. Air Force, regrets that she supported Trump in the last election.

“I feel disgusted with myself, I feel betrayed, like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said.

Bright lives in a small town far out on Colorado’s prairie and has several disabling medical conditions. She was initially drawn to Trump because of his vows to support veterans, avoid foreign wars and lower costs.

“It’s like high school class president: ‘I’m gonna promise we are going to get pizza every single day,’” Bright said. “Then as soon as they get elected they are like, ‘Oh, I lied.’”

In a sign of just how unpopular Trump’s approach on prices has become, the poll found that only about one-quarter of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living.

The consumer price index climbed 3.3% in March from a year ago, and inflation is slightly higher than the 3% that Trump inherited upon returning to the White House last year. Yet Trump has shown little interest in inflation and played down the rising energy costs caused by the war prompting Iran to effectively shutter the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

Trump on Tuesday dismissed the war as a “little journey” and portrayed the roughly 35% jump in oil prices as a positive compared to what he thought would happen.

He told CNBC in an interview that he was “surprised” that oil prices were only around $90 a barrel, compared to the $200 that he claimed to have expected.

Public disenchantment with that attitude is visible among his own supporters. Only about half of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living.

Younger Republicans are particularly unhappy. About 6 in 10 Republicans under 45 disapprove of how Trump is handling costs, compared to about 4 in 10 older Republicans.

Most Republicans who identify as supporters of the Make America Great Again movement are still largely behind the president. About 9 in 10 MAGA Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance, compared to 44% of non-MAGA Republicans, although only about 7 in 10 MAGA Republicans approve of him on cost of living.

Miguel Cortes, a 67-year-old retired aircraft mechanic in South Carolina, believes the increase in prices from tariffs and the Iran war is simply a temporary price to pay. As for gasoline costs rising, “it is what it is, I’m not going to complain,” he said. “People are just going to have to deal with it.”

“From deep in my soul, I believe God put him there for a reason,” said Cortes, who has a tin sign of “Make America Great” in his garage near a National Rifle Association plaque.

About three-quarters of U.S. adults described the U.S. economy as “very” or “somewhat” poor in April, up from about two-thirds in February.

The drop in confidence comes as the economy remains unsettled, with gasoline prices higher than they were, as the financial markets for stocks, bonds and oil continues on a rollercoaster ride that veers wildly based on Trump’s claims of a coming peace with Iran one day and a threat to destroy the entire civilization the next.

Americans such as Heidi Bunting, 35, a student with two children, see an economy in which basic needs such as health care and transportation are unaffordable.

“It’s awful, and not just for me,” said Bunting, who lives in Bowling Green, Ohio. “I’m sure the only people doing well in this economy are those who started with a lot of money.”

Despite efforts to tout last year’s tax cuts and brush off economic concerns, Trump’s economic approval remains low among independents and has even eroded among Republicans.

About 2 in 10 independents approve of Trump’s performance on the economy in the new poll, down slightly from about 3 in 10 in March. Far more Republicans, 62%, have a positive view of the way Trump is handling the economy, but that’s also down from 74% last month.

In general, Republicans are less enthusiastic about Trump’s overall performance than they were shortly after he took office. In March 2025, 51% of Republicans “strongly” approved of the way he was handling the presidency, a figure that has dropped to 38% now.

Immigration, another signature issue of Trump’s, is a relative bright spot for the president. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of his performance on that issue, which is unchanged from last month and higher than his overall approval.

Trump’s approval ratings are in line with his predecessor Joe Biden’s lowest approval rating in AP-NORC polling — 36% — which came during July 2022 after inflation spiked to a four-decade high. Biden’s approval ratings recovered slightly as inflation eased, raising a question as to whether Trump can quickly regroup to show tangible progress.

Trump came into office last year with relatively low approval — 42% in March 2025 — which has until now remained fairly stable.

Bedayn reported from Austin.

The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Utah restricted fireworks and declared a state of emergency Friday ahead of July Fourth celebrations as the United States' largest wildfire mushroomed in size. The National Weather Service issued a rare “Particularly Dangerous Situation” warning as dry, windy conditions provided fuel for more fires across the western U.S.

The Cottonwood Fire in a sparsely populated area of southern Utah started Monday. It reached nearly 111 square miles (287 square kilometers) Friday and was uncontained, forestry officials said. One of six large wildfires burning in Utah, it severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort in Beaver County, forcing mandatory evacuations.

Smoke from the fire has been pushing to the east and northeast, meaning the air quality at popular vacation spots like Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks — located far south of the flames — hasn’t been significantly affected beyond some haze in the Bryce area. Still, visitors to Bryce have posted videos on social media showing the giant plume in the distance.

The smoke could further be seen for hundreds of miles, all the way to Colorado, as authorities put roughly 1,300 residents in the towns of Marysvale, Junction and Circleville on notice that they should be prepared to leave if conditions worsen and the fire pushes further.

“This is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory,” state forester Jamie Barnes said in a statement Thursday. “We’re seeing fires spread farther and faster under conditions that defy historical expectations. Some of the fires we’ve responded to this year are behaving in ways veteran firefighters simply haven’t seen before.”

Bruce Brown, 76, accompanied the sheriff on Thursday to find that his cabin and others in the area were gone.

“It looks a lot like the moon,” he said. “Just burned out. Power poles tipped over all up the canyon.”

Alyssa Olsen, 27, said her family’s cabin also burned, including memorabilia from her grandfather’s time in the ski patrol. It was the last place they gathered for family photos with her grandmother before she died of cancer. Her brother was to get married there in two months.

“That stuff you can’t just build back,” Olsen said.

Gov. Spencer Cox set the temporary fireworks restrictions through July 5 as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, saying “this year is different.”

The weather service in Salt Lake City, for the first time in the office's history, issued a “ Particularly Dangerous Situation ” warning for five Utah counties, including the area of the Cottonwood Fire. The rare alert was first used to warn of tornado conditions. A red flag warning also was issued for most of the state.

“Prepare now for rapid fire growth,” it said.

A similar “dangerous situation” warning had been issued for the 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. A federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in the arson case against Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of sparking that fire. The jury said it couldn't agree on a verdict.

While the cause of the Cottonwood Fire in Utah was unknown, Cox’s order noted that humans have been the cause of most fires in the state so far this year.

The governor’s order gives power to Barnes to restrict or prohibit fireworks displays in Utah’s cities and towns, instead of leaving those decisions to the communities.

With extreme fire conditions persisting, Rocky Mountain Power issued a public safety power shut-off watch/warning for areas of central, southern and eastern Utah through the weekend.

Crews also were battling the Iron Fire southwest of Salt Lake City. The flames on Thursday forced the temporary evacuation of Eureka, population 1,000.

Red flag warnings, which mean conditions such as low humidity, warm temperatures and strong winds can create an extreme wildfire risk, were in effect Friday for a large area that stretched from Idaho to southern Arizona and New Mexico.

The warnings extended into Saturday, with forecasters predicting winds of 25 to 35 miles an hour (40 km/h to 56 km/h) and very low humidity levels. The worst conditions were expected from northern Arizona into central and southern Utah.

Much of Utah already is experiencing severe to extreme drought, while parts of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico are experiencing severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

In New Mexico, firefighters were battling a blaze that had forced the evacuations of campgrounds and a YMCA summer camp in the Jemez Mountains.

In Arizona, a wildfire prompted some evacuations last weekend near Sedona, burning about several hundred acres of steep and rugged terrain near Oak Creek Canyon.

Nationally, nearly 3 million acres have burned since the start of the year, pushing the U.S. ahead of the 10-year average. The National Interagency Fire Center said firefighters are making progress on containing fires from Alaska to Florida.

Associated Press reporter Sudhin Thanawala contributed to this story.

This story has been corrected; the state forester's first name is spelled Jamie, not Jaime.

This undated image provided by the U.S. Forest Service Friday, June 26, 2026, shows firefighters responding to the Cottonwood Fire on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, above Birch Lake, near Beaver, Utah. (Mike McMillan/U.S. Forest Service via AP)