Kimmel mocks Trump’s 34 percent approval amid polling slide

Jimmy Kimmel turned Donald Trump’s 34 percent approval into a punch line, but the real story is the slide behind the joke. The number sits at the low end of a run of weak polls that have now shown Trump struggling not just overall, but on the core issues of inflation and the economy.

Gallup reported on November 28, 2025, that Trump’s job approval had fallen to 36 percent, a new second-term low and only a point above his all-time low of 34 percent. NBC News then found Trump at 36 percent in early 2026, with two-thirds of Americans disapproving of his handling of inflation. By April, CNN was showing only 31 percent approval for Trump’s handling of the economy, a record low on that measure. Last week, CBS News found even softer issue numbers, with just 27 percent approving of Trump’s handling of inflation and 30 percent approving of his handling of the economy.

That backdrop is what made Kimmel’s line land. “He has the same approval rating as ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop,’” Kimmel said on Thursday. It was one of several recent digs aimed at Trump’s standing, including jokes that his approval was more likely to be “007” than a Bond-style rating and lower than “gas station bathrooms.” The comedian has used Trump’s poll numbers repeatedly in monologues, turning the president’s standing into a recurring late-night target.

The polling trend suggests the problem is not a single outlier. Read together, the Gallup, NBC News, CNN and CBS News numbers point to a sustained stretch of weakness across pollsters and across issue areas. Trump’s broad approval has stayed in the mid-30s, while his handling of inflation and the economy has slipped into the high 20s and low 30s, leaving little sign of a durable rebound.

The political implications are harder to measure than the jokes, but they are real. Weak approval can sap leverage with lawmakers, shape the tone of coverage and narrow the space for a president to claim momentum. Trump has answered Kimmel with escalation of his own, again urging ABC to fire the comedian in late April 2026 after another on-air mockery. The feud has become a familiar backdrop, but the polling numbers suggest the discomfort extends beyond one television segment.