Trump’s Approval Ratings Are Plummeting. The Last Group of People You’d Expect Is Behind the Shift.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. One of Donald Trump’s most loyal demographic groups, men are an essential component of the president’s base. Regressive, punitive gender politics are the glue that holds the MAGA coalition together across lines of ideology and disposition. When the president won reelection in 2024, his win was credited in part to the men he reached through the manosphere, a collection of influencers and media productions that preach a vicious gospel of masculinism. Trump has betrayed countless allies and reneged on all sorts of campaign promises, but his commitment to preferencing men over women has never seemed to falter. In return, men—especially young ones—have given him their support. But an Economist/YouGov poll conducted in recent days found that support diminishing. Trump’s net approval rating among men in the poll was −22, the lowest ever recorded during either of his presidential terms. Men aren’t the only ones disappointed in the president’s performance. Women’s support for Trump has cratered over the course of his second administration, too. But the decline in men’s Trump approval has been much more dramatic. At the time of the 2025 inauguration, Trump was already underwater among women, who gave him a net approval rating of −5. In the year and a half since, women’s approval fell 29 points to its nadir at the beginning of July. By contrast, men began Trump’s second term in clear favor of the president. When he took office, his net approval rating among men was about +17. It’s fallen 39 points since then, a sign that a great number of people who helped propel Trump into office on a popular-vote victory are growing displeased with their chosen leader. Though different polls have returned different results in recent weeks, they all show the country steadily souring on the president. Among respondents of all genders, the Economist/YouGov poll placed Trump’s net approval rating at −24, lower than Joe Biden’s worst numbers in the poll during his term. An American Research Group survey conducted in the last week painted an even grimmer picture for the president: His support in that poll reached just 30 percent, while 67 percent disapproved of his performance. And though Trump’s approval ratings haven’t fallen that much in the last few months—they’ve been pretty low for a while—a Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that many of the president’s consistent backers have weakened in their support. For the first time, considerably more than half of Trump supporters said they only “approve somewhat” rather than “approve strongly” of Trump. In his first term, about two-thirds of Trump’s backers approved strongly of his performance. What’s changing everyone’s minds? Since his inauguration, in the Economist/YouGov poll, Trump’s ratings have fallen from net approval to net disapproval on issues such as crime and immigration. Americans, including self-identified MAGA Trump voters, are quickly turning against the Iran war; they are also displeased with the president’s handling of the economy. And thanks in large part to Trump’s draconian crackdowns on immigrants, which have led to nearly two dozen shootings, including several killings, by federal agents, Americans are now more likely to support abolishing ICE than oppose it. Even a quarter of Republicans think the agency should be eliminated. While it might be tempting for Trump opponents to see this record-low slump in his approval ratings as an indication that Americans are finally, conclusively fed up with their dangerously volatile and incompetent president, it’s worth remembering how fickle public opinion can be. Trump ended his first term in 2021 with terrible approval ratings on the heels of a deadly insurrection at the Capitol, then spent the next few years covering himself with dishonor. He won reelection in 2024 anyway, in a victory that was even more decisive than his first go-round. In all likelihood, most men aren’t turning against Trump because they’ve cleared the cobwebs from their eyes and are coming to see the president as a cruel, corrupt, mayhem-inducing grifter. The draw of an avowedly male-supremacist president has not lost its power. But there may be a force at play with an even firmer hold on the American man: gas prices. One Trump-voting man told the Wall Street Journal that he can now afford only enough gas for essential car trips. “I regret it,” he said of his vote for Trump. Another said he is using his boat less these days due to expensive fuel. (Who will think of the boat owners?!) Though it’s not just fuel prices worrying men—some young men who voted for Trump told the New York Times that they were dismayed by tariffs and other broken economic promises—past elections have shown that political parties in power have a tougher time in elections when gas prices are up and an easier time when they drop. Usually, presidents have little control over the cost of fuel, but Trump’s decision to launch an ill-thought-out, unnecessary, unpopular war with Iran was an unforced error that directly inflated prices at the pump. Even a strong majority of MAGA Americans admit it. It may not be the noblest reason to oppose the war or sour on Trump, and it may not be enough to tear the MAGA faithful from their idol: One Trump voter who told the New York Times he disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy and the Iran war said he’d still vote for the president a fourth time if he ran again. But for a Democrat eyeing the November midterms, a boatload of disillusioned, gas-starved men might look like a godsend.