The midterms are less than three months away. A new Financial Times poll, out August 16, shows over 53% of registered voters, among them 25% were Republicans, say their finances have worsened since Trump returned to the White House January last year.
55% disapprove of Trump's performance. Among them 20% are Republicans.
One factor is the US-Iran war and other issues that keep pushing up fuel prices and other consumer costs.
The poll also shows Democrats with a clear advantage. While 45% favor Republicans, 51% of Americans say they'll vote for a Democratic candidate in the November midterms.
On jobs and the economy, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans.
For Trump and the Republican Party, this is a blaring alarm. Republicans believe it was voter trust on these issues that powered Trump’s 2024 victory. That trust is now eroding.
The nonpartisan London-based firm Focaldata conducted the poll from August 7 to 10, surveying 1,913 registered voters.
The results are stark: 53% of registered voters say their living conditions have worsened under Trump. That includes nearly 57% of independents and almost a quarter of Republicans.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents say the US economy is on the wrong track.
53% say their living conditions have worsened under Trump. Nearly two-thirds say the economy is on the wrong track.
Trump's Approval Tanks
Voters are handing Democrats the advantage on the issues that hit kitchen tables hardest: inflation, cost of living, jobs, and the economy. It's a brutal verdict on Trump's economic stewardship.
And Trump's numbers on inflation and cost of living? Abysmal. A full 64% disapprove. That includes nearly 70% of independents and about a third of his own Republicans.
The reality is stark. US inflation hit 3.4% in July.
High prices are forcing millions of Americans to slash spending. Consumer confidence has cratered, sinking near historic lows.
And wages fell in July, according to US government data.
Trump's overall approval is just as grim. A full 55% of Americans disapprove of his performance. That includes nearly one in five Republicans.
Here's a flashing red light for the White House: Trump's net approval among Republicans (the share satisfied minus those opposed) has plunged 8 points in just one month.
Midterm Reckoning and the War Factor
Trump won't be on the ballot in November. But the midterms are widely seen as a national referendum on his leadership.
Democrats need to win just four seats in the Senate and four in the House to seize control of Congress next year.
If they pull it off, they can block any partisan legislation for the next two years. That would gut the Republican agenda, leaving it virtually powerless except through executive actions by the president and his cabinet.
According to reports, polls have been telling a consistent story for months: Democrats are likely to retake the House. The Senate? That's a tougher climb.
A string of recent polls shows Democrats could retake the House.
And then there's the war. A Reuters survey found Americans' support for a war with Iran is extremely low. The vast majority believe Trump has failed to clarify his goals or strategy.
Deep Throat
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Deep Throat
Japan announced its unconditional surrender 81 years ago. Yet to this day, its top officials are still "worshipping ghosts" as a pack. On 15 August, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stopped short of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in person. She instead made a "tamagushi" offering at her own expense in her capacity as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). That same day, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi went to the shrine himself, joined for the first time by a collective of senior LDP executives. The spectacle drew international attention.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visits the Yasukuni Shrine in person. Photo: AP
According to Kyodo News, Takaichi paid the "tamagushi" ritual offering fee out of her own pocket today as LDP president. She did not visit in person. Since the LDP returned to power, a prime minister's "tamagushi" offering on 15 August, made in the capacity of party president, has become an unbroken "tradition" for 14 consecutive years.
The Defense Minister and the "Four-Horse Carriage"
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni in person on the morning of the surrender anniversary. He is the first sitting defense minister to worship there on 15 August in two years, since Minoru Kihara did so in 2024. The Nikkei noted that Koizumi has visited the shrine many times before, including as environment minister and as minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
More striking still, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki, General Council Chairperson Haruko Arimura and Election Strategy Committee Chairman Yasutoshi Nishimura visited the shrine together. It was the first collective pilgrimage by the party's top leadership. The original plan was reportedly for the LDP's entire "four-horse carriage" to worship as one: the secretary-general, the General Council chairperson, the Policy Research Council chairman and the election strategy chief. But Policy Research Council Chairman Takayuki Kobayashi was absent. His constituency in Chiba Prefecture had been hit by rare torrential rain, forcing him to hurry home to handle the disaster.
Takaichi's Stand-Ins
Analysts point out that the LDP's "leadership group visit" was anything but a spontaneous act by a few like-minded leaders. In reality, it was a scaled-down, cut-price version of a "Takaichi visit". The goal was “to deceive the heavens and cross the sea”: lull international attention while currying favor with far-right voters at home. The four who worshipped together were, in effect, Takaichi's own stand-ins. The move embodies the collective will of the LDP leadership under her rule. But it is also a provocation, a bid to manufacture a new precedent and test, step by step, how far the bottom line can be eroded.
The LDP's collective "ghost worship". Photo: AP
A Japan politics observer with Guancha.cn said the LDP is a "big tent" party. Its conservative right wing, with its near-obsessive devotion to Yasukuni worship, carries considerable weight. So whoever is elected LDP president, and whatever his personal view of history, he must make some gesture on 15 August. The point is to preserve party unity and appease the hardliners. For them, it is more a matter of political expediency.
For Takaichi, however, things are different. She has long been a vanguard of the "we should visit Yasukuni" chorus. During her two runs for the LDP presidency, she made "support for visits" a key personal selling point. She even vowed that "I will keep visiting even as prime minister". But what is the reality? As former Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto put it: "Anyone who uses their brain knows that a sitting Japanese prime minister simply cannot visit the shrine right now." Japanese netizens who once backed Takaichi are now pouring out grievances: "So much for 'I'll visit even as PM'. All lies, pure verbal fraud"; "Takaichi has really let us down". For Takaichi, the cunning heart is willing but it lacks the nerve is. Unable to visit, she can only settle for the next best thing: sending a "tamagushi" offering like everyone else, and calling it a day.
The Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are enshrined. Photo: AP
Swapping the Carriage for the Prime Minister
The secretary-general, the General Council chairperson, the Policy Research Council chairman and the election strategy chief are the "four-horse carriage" that actually keeps the LDP machine running. According to the Guancha.cn observer's analysis, the Takaichi government faces a bind. On one hand, constrained by the international situation, no one in the government dares to shoulder the grave consequences of a "sitting prime minister's visit". On the other, the government has broken its word time and again, and cannot give its diehard far-right supporters at home a proper account.
At present, centrist voters have turned sharply against the Takaichi government over issues such as amending the Imperial House Law. Its forced push for a consumption tax cut has deepened divisions within the LDP itself. If far-right voters were to abandon the government now, it would be adding frost to snow. A "tamagushi" offering alone could never satisfy the far right. Hence the leadership's new scheme: swap the "four-horse carriage" in for the "sitting prime minister", and demonstrate just how much they "value Yasukuni worship".
An LDP official told the Mainichi Shimbun on the 14th that, with Takaichi's absence a foregone conclusion: it would be good if this could show maximum consideration for the feelings of our conservative support base. Whether Japan's conservative voters swallow this trick is another matter. But the international community certainly will not be fooled. Eighty-one years on, Japan's right-wing forces keep rewriting history and building up armaments. The Defense Ministry is about to submit a budget request totaling some 8.9 trillion yen for fiscal 2027, yet another record high.
The Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are enshrined. Photo: AP
Beijing's Warning
In response, Senior Colonel Chen Xi, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said that 81 years ago, under the heavy blows of China and the world's anti-fascist forces, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. Japanese militarism once dragged all of Asia into an abyss of blood and fire. Atrocities such as the Nanjing Massacre, the Bataan Death March and the Thai-Burma Death Railway brought untold catastrophe to the peoples of Asia and the world. The Japanese people themselves also suffered deeply.
Chen stressed that the truth of history must not be forgotten, and that justice and peace brook no desecration. "We urge the Japanese side to reflect deeply, confess and atone for its crimes, strictly abide by the post-war international order, and halt its dangerous march toward 're-militarization'. Straying back onto the wrong path will only invite a more painful defeat and a more thorough reckoning."
