Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Negative in 20 States He Won

[Thiệu Ngô]

U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating is now negative in 20 states that he won in the 2024 presidential election.

By Kate Plummer

According to polling by YouGov for The Economist, the president's approval rating is underwater in all but 11 states.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment outside of normal business hours.

Why It Matters

Tracking Trump's approval rating helps gauge the public's response to his administration's policies across different regions of the United States.

It will likely affect how voters behave in these states in the November 2026 midterm elections. Republicans have a slim majority of 219 to 214 in the House of Representatives, so losing just a handful of seats could make it difficult for the GOP to carry out its agenda during the rest of Trump's term.

What To Know

Overall, the area with the lowest approval rating is the District of Columbia at -75.9 points. Maryland recorded the second-lowest approval rating (-41.5 points), and Hawaii came in third, with -35.6 points.

The pollsters also found that, except for Idaho, all states have a lower approval rating for Trump than they did in January. They found that the biggest shift happened in Oklahoma, where Trump's approval rating swung from +27 points to -7.

“President Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda has depended upon complacent Republican majorities in Congress," Calvin Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas, told Newsweek. "Now both the president and his congressional majorities are intensely aware that polling has shifted against them on the all-important economic issues and the coalition that carried them to victory in 20224, including unusually strong support among young people and minorities, has crumbled.”

“Republicans know that Trump sees the red lights flashing, but there is little confidence that he can shift his attention from pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize to the electorally critical issues [of] jobs and affordability and hold it there," Jillson said. "Democrat confidence is growing.”

The results come amid other negative polling about the president at a national level. A poll last month by The Economist/YouGov found Trump’s approval rating at its lowest level since he returned to office in January. Thirty-nine percent of respondents approved of the job he is doing, and 58 percent disapproved, a net approval rating of -19 points.

Meanwhile, a Fox News poll this week found that 76 percent of voters view the U.S. economy negatively. This makes Trump less popular on the economy than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. At the end of Biden's presidency, Fox News polling showed that 70 percent of people viewed the economy negatively.

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social earlier this month: "So many Fake Polls are being shown by the Radical Left Media, all slanted heavily toward Democrats and Far Left Wingers…Fake News will never change, they are evil and corrupt but, as I look around my beautiful surroundings, I say to myself, 'Oh, look, I’m sitting in the Oval Office!'"

What Happens Next

As his presidency continues, Trump's approval rating will likely fluctuate. Whether his declining approval rating affects the GOP's performance in the midterms in the states where it is currently underwater remains to be seen.