USA · 18 August, 2026 · 2 min read
Reuters/Ipsos Poll Finds 33% Approve Of Donald Trump As Iran Conflict Fears Rise
Reuters/Ipsos poll: 33% approve, 64% disapprove of Trump. 80% expect prolonged US involvement in Iran.
Which poll frames Trump’s record-low approval.
11 of 12 outlets skipped it: dawn links low approval to broader America First and international law critiques.
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Dawn cites Economist/YouGov for the low approval, while Reuters/Ipsos underpins most others.
Approval hits 33%
President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to 33%, the lowest level of his term, in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday. The survey found 64% of Americans disapproved of how he is handling his job performance, while 33% approved.
The poll also found that 80% of Americans, including 87% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans, think US involvement in Iran “will go on for an extended period of time,” and only 16% said the conflict would likely end in a few weeks. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted over four days and collected responses from 1,166 U.S. adults nationwide with a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.
Gas prices and Iran
The Reuters/Ipsos polling shift is tied to the US-Israel war on Iran, which the articles say began after Trump ordered attacks against Iran alongside Israel in late February. The resulting conflict disrupted about a fifth of the world’s oil trade and prompted a rise in gasoline prices, with the American Automobile Association reporting that the cost of gasoline [petrol] was up nearly a third compared to a year ago.
Trump told a rally of supporters that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” is worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country,” meaning Iran, could not have a nuclear weapon. The same Reuters/Ipsos poll found that some 80% of Americans believe US involvement in Iran “will go on for an extended period of time,” while just 16% expected the conflict to end in a few weeks.
Midterms and political fallout
The Reuters/Ipsos articles connect Trump’s declining standing to the November midterm elections, saying the conflict is affecting American households and Trump’s Republican allies who argue for a Republican majority in Congress. Forbes reported that a Financial Times/Focaldata poll of 1,913 registered voters found 64% disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living, and said Democrats have a five percentage-point advantage over Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
Newsweek’s state-level estimates using polling data from YouGov projected that Trump has the highest net approval in Wyoming (+14), followed by Idaho (+9) and West Virginia (+6), while disapproval exceeds approval in the other 47 states and the District of Columbia. Newsweek also quoted White House spokesperson Davis Ingle saying, “The ultimate poll was November 5, 2024, when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump,” as the tracker’s net-approval projections were framed as implications for control of Congress.