Trump Is Losing Voter Support Over Cost Of Living: Disapproval Rating Hits Second-Term Record

Ahead of the recent State of the Union presidential address, President Donald Trump's disapproval rating hit a new second-term record in a voter poll. Here's the reasoning behind the rising disapproval rating.

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Trump's Approval Rating

A new Emerson College poll conducted before the State of the Union shows Trump's approval rating remaining steady at 43% for February, the same approval rating he had in January.

While his approval rating held steady, the disapproval rating for Trump rose to 55%, up four percentage points from the 51% rating he had in January. This marks a record high for his disapproval rating since taking office again last January.

Trump's approval rating stood at 49% last January and has declined since that second-term high, hitting 41% in November and December 2025, before recovering slightly to the current 43% rating for both January and February.

Emerson College calls out the higher disapproval rating from Hispanic voters.

"Hispanics disapprove of the job the president is doing, 58% to 37%, a significant shift after reporting a near-split rating last month (43% approve to 45% disapprove) following the administration's military action in Venezuela,” Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said.

Most Important Voter Issues

Trump's rising disapproval rating could be due to the items that voters deem the most important heading into the 2026 Midterm Elections.

Asked what the most important issue was facing the U.S., these were the top vote getters:

• Economy – jobs, inflation, taxes: 30.3%
• Threats to democracy: 30.1%
• Immigration: 16.2%
• Health Care: 5.9%

Voters were asked to rate items on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being least important and 10 being most important. These were the top items by mean rating:

• Cost of Living: 8.2
• Health Care Costs: 7.8
• Inflation: 7.6
• Deportation Policy: 7.1
• Health Care Access: 6.9
• Border Security: 6.3

Among Democratic voters, health care costs were higher than average at 8.6. For Republican voters, border security and deportation policy were high priorities at 8.3 and 8.2, respectively, compared to the ratings on the two items by Democrats and Independents.

Independent voters listed the cost of living as the top priority, with a mean rating of 8.2.

The high marks for cost of living come with stock market indexes near all-time highs, a factor that has been called out positively by Trump and the White House administration.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recently hit 50,000 for the first time. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA), which tracks the index, is up 1.9% year-to-date and up 13.3% over the last year.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, is up 0.4% year-to-date in 2026 and up 17.3% over the last year.

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