President Donald Trump is starting to see cracks in his once-ironclad base. His approval rating has dipped across the board, and even some of his 2024 supporters are beginning to drift.
A new Economist/YouGov poll shows that 84 percent of Trump voters still approve of how he’s handling the presidency, while 14 percent disapprove. That’s still a solid number, but it marks a four-point drop from August, when his approval among his voters was higher. Overall, 39 percent of Americans now approve of Trump’s job performance, while 57 percent disapprove, his worst showing since returning to office. The survey was conducted from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, as the government shutdown entered its second month and frustration deepened nationwide.
For millions of Americans, the shutdown isn’t an abstract political fight, it’s personal. More than 42 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, have been caught in the crossfire. The funds that keep their benefits going ran out in November. Though a lower court ordered payments to continue, the Supreme Court temporarily paused that decision. The USDA at first said it was working to restore full benefits, then abruptly reversed course and told states to stop. Food banks, already strained from feeding unpaid federal workers, are seeing lines grow longer each week.
The chaos doesn’t end there as the Federal Aviation Administration has announced flight reductions across 40 major airports to ease pressure on air traffic controllers who haven’t been paid in weeks. The result, thousands of delays and cancellations over the weekend. For many travelers, the shutdown feels less like politics and more like punishment.
All this comes as Democrats celebrate strong results in last week’s elections, flipping seats across several states and signaling a broader shift in momentum heading into next year.
Another poll from Emerson College, conducted Nov. 3 and 4, tells a similar story. Forty-one percent of respondents said they approve of the job Trump is doing, while 49 percent disapprove, a reversal from when he took office in January, when those numbers were flipped.
“Nearly one year after he was elected, President Trump’s approval has flipped since the first Emerson College poll of the new administration,” said Spencer Kimball, the group’s executive director. He also noted that Trump’s support among Republican voters has dropped 12 points since the inauguration, from 91 percent to 79 percent.
Trump brushed off the numbers. “So many Fake Polls are being shown by the Radical Left Media, all slanted heavily toward Democrats and Far Left Wingers,” he wrote on Truth Social Monday, continuing: “In the Fair Polls, and even the Reasonable Polls, I have the Best Numbers I have ever had and, why shouldn’t I?”
Still, the data tells a different story because after weeks of economic anxiety, missed paychecks, canceled flights, and political gridlock, the mood in the country has shifted. For the first time since Trump’s return to power, a small but notable number of his own voters seem to be wavering.
It’s not a full revolt, at least not yet, but if the base that carried Trump through years of controversy begins to lose faith, it could mark the start of a deeper political reckoning.
