President Donald Trump is dragging down his fellow Republicans and heightening their risk of losing control of the Senate, the House of Representatives and/or both in the upcoming midterm elections.
Despite the president claiming on Wednesday that his poll numbers “are the highest they have ever been,” data journalist G. Elliott Morris wrote that same day that the actual survey numbers paint a very different picture.
“Turning to the midterms, the Democrats lead Republicans on the House congressional ballot by a margin of 7 points, 50 percent to 43 percent among registered voters,” Morris explained. “That is within the margin of error of our poll’s reading of an 8-point margin for the party in May. Among all U.S. adults, the lead is D+6 (48 percent to 42 percent). 7 percent of registered voters say they don’t know who they would vote for.”
He added, “Democrats have led the generic ballot in every single Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll since we began fielding in May 2025. Across 13 monthly polls (we skipped December 2025), Democrats have never trailed, with margins ranging from +5 to +10 points among registered voters.”
Morris noted some good news for Trump, namely that his poll numbers regarding rising prices have stopped falling. Yet that does not compensate for other issues.
“Our poll finds Donald Trump’s overall approval rating among U.S. adults stable at 37 percent this month, with 60 percent of Americans disapproving of how he’s handling his job as president,” Morris explained. Despite the fact that he is no longer falling, he is still struggling overall because “in raw percentage terms, just 25 percent of Americans approve of how he’s handling prices, while 71 percent disapprove and 54 percent disapprove strongly. That is a tough number to post on the issue people say is the most important to them.”
Other issues do not help the president, who has been struggling with falling poll numbers for months.
“He is underwater on 11 of the 12 issues we tested,” Morris said. “His health care rating fell to -32 (from -28 in May), and on government funding and social programs, he has slipped to -25. He’s stuck in the low-to-mid 20s nearly everywhere else — including -25 on jobs and the economy, -23 on trade, -22 on foreign policy, -21 on elections and democracy, and -20 on education.”
Trump is still in positive territory on border security at a net rating of +2 (48 percent approve, 46 percent disapprove),” Morris explained. “Yet he is still negative on related issues, including immigration at -12, crime and public safety (-10), and deportations (-10). It is a simple truth but worth repeating: this is not the political environment the president entered office with a short 15 months ago.”
Trump’s floundering approval ratings, when combined with Democrats’ growing anger toward the president, points to an enthusiasm gap that could have profound ramifications for Trump during the midterms.
“[D]emocrats are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about voting for non-Republican candidates this November and we have seen this not once, not twice, not in an outlier way, but in a consistent way,” Puck News' John Heilemann told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace on Wednesday. “Democrats are showing up and they're showing up in large numbers by the standards of off-year elections and the standards of special elections, and they're not just exceeding [Trump’s margins from 2024] but blowing them out of the water.”
