Trump approval sinks to 35% as Iran war fallout spreads
Republicans still back Trump, but their patience is thinning on the economy as gas prices and Iran war fallout hit household budgets.
Republican support for Donald Trump is still solid, but it is no longer as uniform as it was, and the weakness is showing where it hurts most: the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos survey of 1,271 U.S. adults, conducted May 15-18 and completed Monday, found Trump’s approval at 35%, down a point from earlier in May and just above the 34% low Reuters/Ipsos recorded last month.
The sharper story is inside his own party. In the new poll, 82% of Republicans said they approved of Trump overall, a strong number by any normal standard but notably softer than the 91% Republican approval he opened his term with in a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Jan. 20-21, 2025. The decline suggests that Trump’s hold on GOP voters is strongest on identity and security issues, while their trust starts to fray when politics turns into household costs.
That split showed up clearly in the issue numbers. Republicans were far more positive on crime, at 41%, and immigration, at 40%, than on the economy, where approval fell to 30%. Trump’s numbers were weaker still on cost of living, at 26%, and inflation and rising prices, at 23%. Even among his base, the poll showed that many voters were separating support for a hard-line political style from confidence that he can keep prices in check.
The pressure has intensified as gasoline costs rose after Trump ordered strikes on Iran in February alongside Israel. In an earlier Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, 64% of Americans said recent gas-price increases had affected their household finances, and 83% expected prices to keep rising over the next month. Ipsos also found that 56% of Americans said they were spending more on gas in the previous three months, up from 24% in April 2025. What Trump presented as a display of strength abroad is now carrying a domestic bill at the pump.
The broader arc is just as stark. Trump began this term with 47% approval, a level already below the 50%-plus often seen at the start of a presidency, and he has since slid to the mid-30s. The May numbers do not show a sudden collapse, but they do show an erosion that is spreading through his coalition, especially among Republicans willing to tolerate aggressive foreign policy but less willing to absorb lasting inflation. With the 2026 midterms approaching and Republicans defending narrow congressional majorities, that softening is becoming a political problem, not just a poll result.
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