Only 15% of Americans ‘Strongly Approve’ of Trump Now, down From 29% at the Start of His Term
National approval polls are showing President Donald Trump under pressure deep into 2026. The latest shift came in a Marquette University Law School poll released Sept. 15, which found a steep drop in the share of Americans who strongly approve of his job performance. The numbers add to a broader run of surveys showing Trump underwater nationally.
Marquette poll shows the sharpest change
Marquette University Law School released its latest poll on Sept. 15, finding that 15% of Americans now strongly approve of Trump, down from 29% at the start of his current term. The same poll put Trump’s overall job approval at 37%, down 3 points from Marquette’s July survey. The survey was conducted Sept. 2 through Sept. 9 among 1,023 U.S. adults, with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
The poll also marked Trump’s lowest approval rating in Marquette’s tracking since his return to the White House in early 2025. Before Sept. 15, his previous low in that series was 38% in June. That makes the latest reading a new low point in that specific pollster’s second-term data.
What the national numbers do and do not show
This is a national poll, so it reflects opinion across the United States rather than any one state or metro area. Marquette’s release confirms the broad topline numbers, but it does not provide a state-by-state breakdown in the details cited here. That means it is not possible from this survey alone to say which states drove the decline from 29% to 15%.
Other national measures show a similar pattern, even if the exact percentages differ. As of Sept. 16, Silver Bulletin listed Trump at 38.4% approval and 58.5% disapproval. RealClearPolitics showed 40% approval and 57.8% disapproval, while the New York Times average showed 39% approval and 58% disapproval.
Why the decline matters heading into late 2026
The Marquette poll found Trump slipping across eight issue areas compared with July: border security, immigration, foreign policy, tariffs, the economy, the war with Iran, gas prices, and inflation. On two consumer-focused measures, the numbers were especially weak. Only 19% approved of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living, while 20% approved of his handling of gas prices.
The broader political backdrop also shifted in the same survey. Among likely voters, Democrats led Republicans by 13 points on the generic congressional ballot, up from a 6-point lead in July. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Sept. 14 gave Trump a small lift to 35% approval, but the larger polling picture still showed him in negative territory as of mid-September 2026.
