Donald Trump’s Trump rural voter approval rating on the economy has slipped to 33% in a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, the lowest level Marist has recorded since it began asking the question in 2019. Sixty percent disapprove, and the gap shows up even as 77% of people who voted for him in 2024 still approve.
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, tied the weakness to prices that people see every day: "it's Donald Trump, and that's where the slippage comes in. He can't get away with high prices at the pump and at the supermarket and not get tarnished by that,"
Lee Miringoff and Marist
The poll puts Trump’s economic standing below the level he had at any point in Joe Biden’s single term, and it sits within the margin of error of his previous low earlier this year. It also follows a broader slide in his overall standing, with 36% of adults saying they approve of the job he is doing overall, the lowest approval rating he has seen in his second term.
The numbers help explain where the erosion is coming from. Fifty-four percent of white voters without a college degree are not happy with his handling of the economy, and 64% of independent voters say they either disapprove or strongly disapprove. By contrast, Republican support remains far stronger, with only 18% saying they either disapprove or strongly disapprove.
GasBuddy and fuel costs
Affordability concerns run through the poll. Seventy-eight percent of Americans said gas prices had some effect on their household budgets, while 22% said they did not feel a strain at all. That share was up 3 percentage points from May and sat within the margin of error. Gas prices are down about 50 cents per gallon from last month, but they remain about 79 cents higher than a year ago, and much of the country still sees prices above $4 per gallon.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the pressure is still real: "There is still some very real pain. The average fill-up is still in the ballpark of $8 to $16 more than it was a year ago,"
The new poll leaves Trump with a durable base among his own 2024 voters, but a much weaker national reading on the economy than that support would suggest. The clearest reading for voters watching their budgets is that gas and grocery prices are still shaping how his economic record is judged, even after fuel prices have eased from last month’s level.
December 2020 comparison
In December 2020, half of Americans approved of how Trump was handling the economy right before he left office. That makes the current 33% reading a sharper marker of decline than a routine dip, especially on an issue that had been one of his strongest political advantages.
