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)
