Trump approval falls to 35% as rating on handling prices hits a record -46

Our new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds the president's overall job approval at a new low, Democrats leading by 7 on the generic ballot, and a majority says the Iran war is not worth the cost

Apr 21, 2026

This article reports results from the April 2026 Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll. You can read our previous poll releases here. Subscribers to Strength In Numbers have access to additional visuals and a full archive of crosstabs here, and can suggest questions for future polls via the comments section below!

President Donald Trump has now been in office for about 15 months, and his numbers keep getting worse. Our latest Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll, conducted April 10–14, finds just 35% of U.S. adults approving of his job performance, with 61% disapproving — a net approval rating of -26. That’s a new low in our poll, down from -23 last month and a steep fall from (an already poor) -16 when we first began tracking this question in May 2025.

This deterioration has been driven largely by his handling of the economy and prices. Trump’s net approval on prices and inflation has fallen to -46 — the worst rating on any single issue in the history of our poll, and a stunning 6-point drop from March’s already record-low -40. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) now disapprove of the way Trump is handling prices.

Here are the poll’s headline findings:

Headline poll findings

Job approval: 35% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s job performance; 61% disapprove (net -26, down from -23 in March)
Generic ballot: Democrats lead Republicans 50% to 43% among registered voters, a 7-point margin
Direction of the country: 55% say things are going poorly and major changes are needed, a new high. Just 8% say things are going well
Prices: Trump’s net approval on prices/inflation has fallen to -46, the worst rating on any issue we have ever recorded
Border security: The one bright-ish spot — border security bounced back to net +1, making it once again the only issue where Trump is not underwater
Iran: 64% of Americans say the war in Iran has not been worth the cost, up from 58% in March. 48% say the U.S. should never have gone to war in the first place

More details from this month’s survey follow.

This is the first of several articles releasing data from the April Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll. Subscribe to Strength In Numbers to get them in your inbox.

Democrats have led the generic ballot in every poll we’ve conducted

On the generic congressional ballot, Democrats lead Republicans 50% to 43% among registered voters, a 7-point margin. Democrats have now led in every single Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll since we began fielding in May 2025, with margins ranging between +4 and +10 points.

The April margin is slightly wider than March’s D+6 among registered voters, though within the range of normal month-to-month variation. The consistency of the Democratic lead is more notable than any individual month’s margin: across 11 monthly polls (we skipped December 2025), Democrats have never trailed, with margins ranging between +5 and +10 points.

Trump’s approval on prices hits a record -46 — and he’s underwater on everything else, too

Trump’s issue-by-issue approval ratings tell a grim story for the White House. His net approval on prices and inflation has fallen to -46, worsening every single month of 2026: -31 in January, -35 in February, -40 in March, and now -46 in April. Just 26% of Americans approve of the way he is handling prices, while 72% disapprove. More than half of all respondents (56%) strongly disapprove.

And here’s a zoom in on the change from March to April. Trump has lost ground on most issues, and is underwater with the average American on almost every single one:

The one exception is border security, which bounced back to net +1 after dipping to -3 last month. Even this “best” issue is essentially a coin flip — 49% approve and 48% disapprove. But it is, once again, the only issue where Trump is not in negative territory.

Deportations, immigration, and crime — the issues the administration presumably wants to be judged on — are all in the range of -10 to -12. Better than the kitchen-table issues, but nowhere near positive.

The country’s top problems are the issues where Trump is weakest

When we ask Americans to name the single most important problem facing the country, 34% say prices and inflation — the same issue where Trump’s approval is at its worst. Another 14% say jobs and the economy, 12% cite elections and democracy, and 8% name health care — rounding out the top four.

When we expand to let respondents name their top three problems, 57% include prices/inflation, 40% name jobs and the economy, and 34% cite health care. These are precisely the issues where voters trust Democrats more.

On the question of which party voters trust more to handle each issue, Democrats lead on 8 out of 12 issues, including all of the top voter priorities. Democrats hold their biggest leads on health care (D+22), government funding and social programs (D+22), education (D+18), and elections and democracy (D+13). They also lead on prices/inflation (D+11) and jobs and the economy (D+10) — the two issues voters rate as the country’s biggest problems.

Republicans lead on border security (R+13), crime and public safety (R+3), immigration (R+3), and deportations (R+2).

When we ask voters which party would do a better job handling their own top issue, Democrats lead 48% to 36%, with 17% unsure. That’s a 12-point advantage on the issues people care most about.

A quick note before more: this poll exists because readers pay for it. Strength In Numbers has no billionaire backer and no ad sales team — just subscribers who believe the public deserves honest, transparent data about what Americans actually think. If that’s you, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. You’ll get the full crosstabs, the Tuesday Deep Dives, and the satisfaction of knowing you helped keep independent polling alive.

55% say things in the country are going poorly — a new high in 2026

The share of Americans who say “things are going poorly and major, disruptive changes are needed” reached 55% in April, a new high in our polling. Just 8% say things are going well. Another 34% say things could be going better.

Together with Trump’s approval numbers, the picture is one of slow but steady erosion in public confidence.

Most Americans say the Iran war is not worth the cost

Our poll also asked about the war in Iran, and the results are bleak for the administration. A commanding 64% of Americans say the war has not been worth the cost to the United States, including 51% who say it was “definitely not worth the cost.” Just 29% say it has been worth it. Opposition has grown since March, when we asked a similarly framed question and found 58% called the war a bad use of taxpayer dollars.

With the U.S. and Iran having recently agreed to a temporary ceasefire, we asked respondents which view came closest to their own. The plurality — 48% — say the U.S. should never have gone to war in the first place. Another 13% say the U.S. did not achieve its goals but ending the war is still the right move. Just 16% say the U.S. achieved its goals and the ceasefire is the right move, and 12% say the U.S. should have continued fighting until it achieved its goals.

Adding those two categories together, 61% either opposed the war entirely or believe it failed to achieve its objectives, while only 16% view it as a success.

We also found that 40% of Americans say they do not understand the main reasons the U.S. went to war in Iran in the first place, with 18% responding “not too well” and 22% saying “not well at all.” Only 28% say they understand the reasons “very well.”

The trend is not the GOP’s friend

Trump’s numbers have now declined in every wave of our poll this year. And while his support bounced occasionally in 2025, it has never increased two months in a row. Overall approval has dropped from 40% in January to 35% in April. His net rating has fallen from -18 to -26.

His drag on the Republican Party puts it in a dangerous place for November’s midterm elections. Democrats have led the generic ballot in every poll we’ve conducted since last May. And no wonder; Trump is underwater on every issue except border security. His approval on prices — the issue voters care about most — has fallen from -31 to a record -46. A 55% majority of Americans — a new high — say the country needs major, disruptive change.

None of this guarantees a Democratic wave in November. Trump’s approval rating could always recover, the war in Iran could end cleanly, and gas prices can fall. But the trend is not his friend, and recovery looks increasingly improbable. The fundamentals a president typically needs to protect his party’s congressional majorities — a growing economy, a public that feels secure, a sense that the country is on the right track — are all moving in the wrong direction at once. If the April numbers are anywhere close to where things stand next fall, Republicans should be preparing for significant losses, at all electoral levels.

Over the next couple of days, Strength In Numbers will release more data from our monthly survey with Verasight. Subscribe today to get those fresh polling dispatches delivered straight to your inbox.

Methods statement: Verasight collected the data for this survey from April 10–14, 2026. The sample consists of 1,514 United States residents ages 18 and above. The data are weighted to match population benchmarks of age, race/ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, metropolitan status, partisanship, and past vote. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.6%. Topline document prepared by G. Elliott Morris for Strength In Numbers. While Strength In Numbers had input on question wording, all other methodological decisions were made and carried out by Verasight to ensure independence of the data-generating process behind these results.

You can download a full topline file, key crosstabs where they are mentioned in this article, and methodology statement at the Strength In Numbers/Verasight polling portal. The paywalled section containing crosstabs and more interactive graphics has been updated with these numbers.

If you have any questions about this poll or the release, please email polling[AT]gelliottmorris.com.

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