Trump approval slips to historic low in Wall Street Journal survey

President Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a record low in Wall Street Journal polling for a president only a few weeks out from the midterms.

In the new poll from the Journal, Trump’s approval rating sat at 37 percent, the lowest of a president shortly before a midterm in the outlet’s polling going back to former President George H.W. Bush.

The closest presidential job approval to Trump’s shortly before the midterms was that of former President George W. Bush, at 39 percent in his second term.

The poll comes only about a month from this year’s midterms, with the president and his party dealing with a challenging electoral environment.

The GOP is facing down the unpopular war in Iran, which reached the seven-month mark Monday. Democrats are outperforming Republicans in recent polling, and concerns about issues like immigration and the cost of living are weighing Trump and the GOP down as Election Day nears.

In the Journal poll, 60 percent of respondents said Trump’s policies on the economy have worsened it, while 25 percent said the opposite and 10 percent said his policies haven’t affected the economy. Five percent didn’t respond or were unsure about how his policies on the economy have affected it.

The war in Iran has affected energy costs for Americans, with the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, closed amid the conflict.

According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was about $4.48 on Monday morning, up from about $3.13 a year prior .

Charlie Cook, founder of the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report, on Sunday said that it had been a “done deal” to conclude that Democrats will probably retake the House following the midterms, with the party’s odds of also claiming the Senate appearing “very realistic.”

“I would completely agree that the House has been kind of a done deal for a good while,” Cook said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week” with Martha Raddatz. “But the Senate, a year ago, it wasn’t realistic to think that the Senate might flip, but now it’s very realistic.”

The Wall Street Journal poll took place from Sept. 16 to 21, featuring 1,500 registered voters and a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.