Americans are deeply frustrated with President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy and rising prices. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.
The new numbers come as Trump and Vice President JD Vance hit the campaign trail on Thursday, heading to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections. Trump will go to Texas and Oklahoma while Vance stumps in Florida, areas where GOP candidates were once expected to glide to victory but are now facing tougher races.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to NATO allies Iceland, Greece and Portugal next week for talks on defense cooperation, trade and energy security.
The State Department said Thursday that Rubio would visit Reykjavík, Athens, and Lisbon from Oct. 5-8 as the Trump administration continues to press for NATO members to boost their defense spending.
Iceland is a key member of an Arctic bloc of nations and is seen by the U.S. as critical to ensuring the high North region remains free of unwanted Russian and Chinese interference. Iceland recently took umbrage when President Trump posted a map on social media depicting the island covered with the U.S. flag, prompting concerns that his designs on Greenland had been expanded.
In Greece, the department said Rubio will be focused on trade and energy, as Greece is seen as a pivotal transit point for U.S. liquified natural gas shipments that the administration hopes to sell throughout Europe.
In Portugal, Rubio will concentrate on economic, and technology cooperation, the department said.
The president was asked by reporters at the White House on Thursday whether he’d been briefed about any links between the pilot behind the attack and Tehran, and he said “We’re working on it right now.”
“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now,” Trump said. He did not offer details.
When asked if the U.S. would retaliate against Tehran if it was behind the attack, Trump said, “Oh they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry.”
“You just ask them,” he added. “They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
“I give us an A-plus on the government, on economics, on everything,” Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House. He claimed that inflation levels are now “really good” and predicted oil prices will fall soon.
A new AP-NORC poll finds that Americans are far less satisfied, with just 26% approving his handling of the overall economy, a new low. A majority of U.S. adults blamed Trump’s policies for high costs.
Trump gave himself high marks after being asked about recent complaints that his successes aren’t getting enough attention.
Trump has expressed frustration about messaging ahead of November’s midterm elections, saying on Wednesday that “we’re doing an extremely poor job of promotion and an extremely great job of running the country.”
Just before departing for Oklahoma and Texas on Thursday, the president met privately with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House.
The meeting was confirmed by a person with knowledge of it, granted anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
Thune has sometimes been a foil for the president, especially as the longtime senator resists changes that Trump wants to make to how the Senate operates. But the two men talk regularly and both are campaigning aggressive for the GOP ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
By Seung Min Kim
Asked if the increasingly unpopular war would threaten his party’s chances in November, Trump at first responded, “It’s possible.” But then he added, “It should help, because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
The president said “100 percent of the people” oppose Iran having nuclear attack capabilities “including worldwide.”
“So, when you say it that way, It would help,” Trump added. “If you don’t say that, it could hurt.”
A group of ships that together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines are heading to the Middle East, a U.S. official said.
That includes the recently deployed USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group. It could mean three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
That would be an unusually high U.S. naval presence of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines and hundreds of aircraft. It comes as the war with Iran stretches past seven months. The Navy previously had three carriers in the Middle East in April -- the first time since 2003.
The USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington are there now, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group. The Pacific-based Washington had moved to the Middle East to relieve the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
By Konstantin Toropin
The president’s travel schedule in the coming days has been a bit of a curiosity: Why is he spending his time in deep red territory that should be easy political ground for Republicans?
Trump’s answer: He wants to thank the voters of Oklahoma for supporting him overwhelmingly in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections.
“I’ve won 87 out of 87 counties,” Trump said, inaccurately stating the number of counties in Oklahoma. He continued: “They’ve been just an unbelievable state.”
He insisted that “you have to give back, too” when a state supports someone in such large margins. Trump also noted that Oklahoma has a key governor’s race this year, and later got the number of counties in the state correct.
The Trump administration on Thursday targeted the remaining sector of Iran’s already heavily-sanctioned industrial infrastructure, singling out entities based in Indonesia, the UAE and Germany.
Among those sanctioned are two of Iran’s largest auto manufacturers, Iran Khodro Company and SAIPA Iranian Automobile Manufacturing Company, as well as several foreign auto industry supply providers and overseas companies in China and Germany that provide the country with source materials like mining and metals.
The actions by the U.S. Treasury come as Trump officials are touting the latest number coming out of Tehran this week, showing its currency falling to new record lows.
The administration credits the continued erosion of the Iranian economy to its months-long economic campaign and has no plans to cease the financial penalties anytime soon even as negotiations between the two countries have restarted.
The joint announcement by the Trump administration’s Treasury and Education departments follows a surge in defaults since payments came due again following a lengthy pause intended to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further complicating the situation has been the end of the most affordable income-driven repayment option, the SAVE plan, sharply raising loan payments for many borrowers.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in Wednesday’s announcement that the “Department of Education was never intended to serve as the fifth largest bank in America.”
Borrowers can use the online portal to get their payments back on track through consolidation or “loan rehabilitation” using a digital process that replaces what the agencies described as an “arduous paper-based approach that has been in place for decades.”
Borrowers have frequently complained that figuring out the status of their loans has been confusing and involves hours on the phone.
The portal also will make it easier to sign up for a temporary interest rate reduction available to some borrowers who sign up for auto payments.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has released its first ad this campaign in a congressional district Republicans have held for more than 30 years.
The ad released Thursday is for first-time Democratic candidate Mitchell Berman. He’s a nurse who’s trying to knock off four-term Republican incumbent Rep. Bryan Steil, who worked as a lawyer for a plastics manufacturer before going to Washington.
The DCCC's willingness to spend in a district that has consistently favored Republicans is another sign of growing optimism among Democrats that they can pull off the midterms upset they’re hoping for.
The ad contrasts Berman’s hunting deer with Steil making money while serving in Congress.
“Bryan Steil and I both chase bucks,” Berman says in the ad. “Difference is, mine has antlers.”
The DCCC said it was spending $271,000 initially on the ad’s visibility, but that could increase.
The poll found about two-thirds of Republicans say higher than usual prices are because of factors outside of Trump’s control, but about one-third say it’s because of Trump’s policies.
“It definitely doesn’t feel like we have trended in the right direction,” agreed Kristen Slaven, 41, a mental health therapist who lives in Gluckstadt, Mississippi, and typically votes Republican.
“Obviously, wars don’t help. When they’re necessary, I understand. But our focus on renaming bodies of water and pieces of land, that’s just stupid to me when people can’t feed their family.”
Trump is hitting the campaign trail with an aggressive schedule of rallies, having asked voters to pretend that he is on the ballot as he tries to bolster turnout in midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress.
But Trump’s dismal numbers in the poll published Thursday show he remains deeply unpopular, with even some Republicans faulting him for failing to deliver on promised relief.
“Groceries are just like kind of out of control. It seems like everything is going up,” said Bethany Lnenicka, 41, who operates a small farm in Fairfax, Iowa. “It’s just insane. And of course your income doesn’t go up.”
A political independent who typically votes Republican and has voted for Trump three times, Lnenicka said “I just do not feel like it has gotten a lot better.”
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case against David Hearn with “prejudice,” which would block U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from refiling the felony charge under political pressure from Trump.
Hearn’s lawyers say Trump administration officials have continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of vandalizing the reflecting pool despite Pirro’s decision to drop the case on July 31. Trump responded by saying Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”
In an embarrassing setback for the White House, Pirro informed the court that new evidence produced by the Interior Department showed the damage resulted from a botched installation by a contractor rushing to complete the project in time for this summer’s America 250 celebration in Washington.
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The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 5.32% on Thursday, near its highest level since 2002. It was less than 4% before the war with Iran began. The higher borrowing costs are helping to overshadow optimism that the artificial-intelligence industry can keep climbing.
The S&P 500 is heading toward its seventh loss in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite are trading downward. The losses were even sharper in Europe, where bond yields saw a significant jump overnight.
High yields slow the overall economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments. Worries about high inflation are festering as oil prices climbed again Thursday. The price for a barrel of Brent crude jumped 3.3% to $101.24, swinging on uncertainty about any end to the U.S. war with Iran.
The civil rights suit says the shots fired by Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who killed Good, “were the predictable and intended product of the operation.”
A news release from the family’s lawyers says the lawsuit describes as a “carefully planned, coordinated effort between senior federal officials and private actors to make two ethnic communities — Minnesotans of Somali and Hispanic descent and origin — the object of aggression and abduction, and to silence by intimidation, arrest and violence the neighbors and allies of those targeted communities who observed, documented and warned of that campaign.”
The lawsuit also alleges “collaboration of federal agencies and individuals with private entities for an operation with discriminatory design, racially targeted pursuit and seizure of individuals without regard to their legal status, and each defendant’s participation in the conspiracy.”
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuits.
The family of the 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration officer during a federal crackdown in Minneapolis is alleging wrongful death and other violations of federal law.
The two lawsuits were filed by Good’s partner, Becca Good, and Renee’s brother Brent Ganger. One says her death was caused by battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. The other alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.
The named defendants include Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who shot her; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; former Homeland Security head Kristi Noem; former U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino, Corey Lewandowski, President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, and others.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a Trump administration policy denying bond hearings for immigrants as the government carries out a sweeping immigration crackdown.
The justices will consider whether immigrants who have been living in the U.S. have a right to a hearing to determine if they should remain detained while challenging their possible deportation.
Appeals court judges from nine of 11 federal circuits have concluded that detaining immigrants without a bond hearing violates federal law.
Those decisions conflict with rulings by the 5th and 8th circuits, which held that immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the U.S. must be detained while their deportation cases are pending.
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In the Time magazine interview, the president indicated he’s open to issuing pardons for members of his administration.
“Yeah, sure I’d do that,” he said.
Scrutiny is sure to ramp up on key members of the Trump administration should Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections.
Trump justified his thinking by pointing to former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons he issued for key government officials and family members as he was departing the White House.
Trump exaggerated what Biden did, saying: “Sleepy Joe Biden, he gave pardons to everyone.”
The president said in an interview with Time magazine conducted on Monday that “pollsters are corrupt” and the bad polls “are fake.”
Trump, in the interview published Thursday, said his own pollster told him his numbers “are much higher than the numbers.”
“I would beat anybody running today by 20 points,” he said.
The president said in an interview with Time magazine conducted on Monday that he was hearing about those weeks-old reports for the first time that day and said, “I can’t imagine this.”
If Netanyahu had known about it, “he would have done something about it. Certainly, he would have had people at least alert,” Trump said in the interview published Thursday.
An Israeli newspaper reported in early September that Netanyahu was directly warned by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive just days before the militant group attacked on Oct. 7, 2023.
In the Time magazine interview, Trump repeatedly avoided answering directly whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be reelected later this month.
“I can only say that I’m not involved in politics anymore,” said the U.S. president, who is ramping up his campaigning for Republicans in the November midterms.
Trump then touted his own record on Israel rather than answering directly whether Netanyahu should be reelected, despite several attempts from Time journalists.
Trump finally answered: “Well, people have written off Bibi many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times. I wouldn’t underestimate Bibi.”
Of Netanyahu’s opponent, Gadi Eisenkot, Trump said: “I don’t hear bad things about him.”
Trump said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday morning that it’s “possible” he’ll ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms.
When pressed further by Time journalists, Trump continued: “I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”
He said in the interview, conducted Sept. 28, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today.”
Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up the Strait” of Hormuz, but said the overall proposal was “not good enough.”
A man passes by an empty Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
FILE - Flowers and photos are left at a memorial site for Renee Good on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Vice President JD Vance arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md. after a trip to Harlingen and Brownsville, Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
