Trump approval dips to new low as Iran war weighs on support: Poll

President Trump’s approval rating sank to a new low in a University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst poll as the Iran war drags on.

Just 32 percent of 1,000 respondents to the national survey , which the university conducted Aug. 21-26, approved of the president’s job performance. That marked a decrease of 1 point relative to a March poll UMass conducted.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents, 64 percent, disapproved of Trump’s performance. That included 54 percent who “strongly” disapproved.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said the president is not handling the war with Iran well, with just 25 percent saying he is handling it either somewhat or very well. The survey had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The Iran conflict has entered its seventh month after Trump initially predicted it would last roughly one month. The Trump administration has doubled down on its economic campaign against the Islamic Republic, while the two sides traded military strikes Sunday.

The president said Monday the latest U.S. strikes on Iran are part of a “very limited” operation.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Other issues weighing down the president’s approval rating include his handling of inflation. More than half of respondents to the UMass poll said he is handling inflation not well at all, with 22 percent saying he is handling it somewhat or very well.

Annual inflation in July was 3.7 percent , as measured by the personal consumer expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation.

That represents an increase of 1.2 points relative to January 2025 , the month Trump returned to office on the heels of his campaign that vowed to lower the cost of essentials.

The UMass poll surveyed 262 Americans who voted for Trump in 2024, 360 Americans who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris and 361 nonvoters.

Of those who voted for the president, 16 percent said they would, with the benefit of hindsight, vote for Harris, vote for a third-party candidate or not vote at all.

“This is hardly a mass exodus from the Trump tent, but is enough that it certainly could’ve been decisive against Trump in what was a relatively close 2024 election. More notably, though, there are now clear, consistent signs of an erosion trend,” said Alexander Theodoridis, an associate professor of political science and co-director of the UMass poll.