More Republicans now think President Donald Trump is using the White House to get rich, a new poll finds, and that’s just one of several warning signs for his party 16 days before the midterms.
Nearly 2 in 3 Americans say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday. Most of the increase over the past year came from Republicans. About one-third of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now hold that view, up from about one-fifth a year ago, the Post reported.
“Perhaps this is the most striking finding,” wrote Scott MacFarlane, chief Washington correspondent for MeidasTouch.
The poll was full of bad news for the White House. Trump’s approval fell to 33%, with 66% disapproving, the lowest mark of his presidency in the Post-ABC poll.
Forty-eight percent of Americans say they’re financially worse off than when Trump returned to office. That’s the highest share to say so about any president in Post-ABC polling going back to 1986. Among those Americans, 78% favor Democrats for Congress.
“Worse than post recession, and heights of covid,” wrote Sam Stein, managing editor of The Bulwark.
Democratic pollster John Anzalone, who conducts The Wall Street Journal’s poll, said the numbers look worse for Republicans than the 2018 midterms did. Only 25% of Americans now rate the economy as excellent or good, compared with 65% in fall 2018.
“So the 2026 midterms are much worse for the GOP because the economy numbers are worse, Trump’s job rating is worse and the popularity of the Republican Party is worse,” Anzalone wrote. “It is a perfect storm.”
He added that, as election analyst Charlie Cook has put it, “this is less of a traditional Blue Wave than a Red Undertow.”
Democrats also led Republicans on every issue the poll tested, including health care (44% to 21%), the cost of living (38% to 24%) and inflation (37% to 23%). CJ Warnke, communications director for the Democratic super PAC House Majority PAC, posted those numbers with a row of siren emojis.
Neither party is popular. Fifty-four percent view the Democratic Party unfavorably, and 63% say the same of the GOP. The MAGA movement fared worst, at 28% favorable and 69% unfavorable.
Historian Aaron Astor noted that “Democratic socialism” polled better than both the Republican Party and “MUCH higher than ‘The MAGA movement.’”
Retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, said Trump’s numbers are “quite a drag on Republican candidates hoping to get elected or re-elected in 16 days.” He warned Democrats not to get too comfortable.
“It’s not that the majority of Americans love the Democratic Party, it’s that the Democratic Party is currently viewed as the least worst of two bad options,” Davis wrote.
A separate NBC News Decision Desk poll released Sunday told a similar story. Trump’s approval stood at 34% among adults, 71% said the country is on the wrong track, and Democrats led the generic congressional ballot 55% to 45%, NBC’s Sahil Kapur reported.
The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll surveyed 2,545 U.S. adults Oct. 9-13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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