Trump's Economic Approval Hits Career Low of 31% as Gas and Tariff Pain Escalate
A CNN/SSRS poll published April 1 finds two-thirds of Americans say Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions — the highest share recorded for any president in CNN's polling history. With gas averaging more than $4 per gallon and personal bankruptcy filings rising, the numbers reflect a widening public economic crisis.
The Core Numbers
President Donald Trump's approval rating for handling the economy fell to 31% in a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and published on April 1, 2026. That is a new career low, down 8 percentage points from January 2026. His approval on inflation has fallen even further — to 27%, down from 44% one year earlier, according to the CNN/SSRS poll.
Trump's overall approval rating in the same poll stands at 35%, one point off his all-time low in CNN polling. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll published on March 24, 2026 measured Trump's overall approval at 36%, noting it was his lowest level since returning to the White House.
The 65% of Americans who told CNN that Trump's policies have made the economy worse is, according to CNN, higher than the share who said the same about President Biden's policies at any point during his presidency. CNN's polling methodology note identifies the polling firm as SSRS and the fieldwork as completed at the end of March 2026.
Erosion Among Republicans
The polling shows unusual depth of erosion within Trump's own coalition. The share of Republicans who strongly approve of his job performance dropped to 43% in the April poll, down from 52% in January 2026, according to CNN/SSRS data.
Trump's economic approval among Republicans has declined 14 points since January. Among Republicans under the age of 45, the decline is 23 points. Nearly 3 in 10 Republicans — 28% — now say Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions, up from 13% in January, according to the same poll.
67% of respondents overall told CNN that Trump has not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. That figure has remained broadly stable since last summer, suggesting it predates the current energy and inflation shock but has not improved.
Gas Prices and the Iran War Factor
The CNN/SSRS poll links part of the erosion directly to fuel costs. National average gasoline prices have exceeded $4 per gallon following the U.S. attack on Iran that began on February 28, 2026. According to the CNN poll, 63% of Americans say higher gas prices have caused at least some financial hardship in their household; 15% describe it as severe hardship.
45% of respondents said they have cut back significantly on how much they drive, up 5 points over the past year. More than 6 in 10 Americans said they were trimming grocery budgets or cutting back on discretionary spending — a figure CNN notes has held above 60% in its polling since 2022.
Just 24% approve of Trump's handling of the gas price situation, and 7 in 10 say he does not have a clear plan for addressing it, according to the CNN/SSRS poll.
Household Financial Fragility: A Parallel Data Set
The polling results coincide with separate survey data on household financial resilience. A national survey of 1,421 U.S. adults conducted in February 2026 by financial services firm JG Wentworth found that 40.8% of respondents said they could cover basic living expenses for only three months if their income suddenly stopped. Another 9.5% said two months, and 5.4% said less than one month.
The same JG Wentworth survey found it takes an average of just $6,356 in additional debt beyond existing obligations to push a household toward bankruptcy. Among respondents who had previously filed for bankruptcy, the cost-of-living crisis was cited as the leading contributor at 43.4%, followed closely by increased tariffs at 41.7%, according to the JG Wentworth data published by StudyFinds on March 31, 2026.
Federal court data cited in the JG Wentworth survey showed non-business bankruptcy filings rose 10.8% between September 2024 and September 2025. Separately, BankruptcyWatch, a commercial data tracker, reported that filings per million people rose from 25.9 to 30.4 in the comparable week of early 2026 versus 2025 — a 17.4% year-over-year increase it described as the largest single-year per-capita jump in its dataset.
Foreign Policy and the DHS Shutdown
The CNN poll also documents weakening views on foreign policy. 63% of Americans say Trump's decisions on foreign policy have hurt the United States' standing in the world, up 6 points since January 2026. Just 36% approve of his handling of foreign affairs.
On the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the CNN/SSRS poll found that 39% of Americans say Republicans in Congress and the president deserve the bulk of the blame, versus 25% who primarily blame Democrats in Congress.
The poll's findings on the economy are consistent with a broader Reuters/Ipsos poll from March 24 that described Trump's overall approval as hitting a new low, driven by fuel prices and opposition to the Iran conflict. The Forbes analysis of Nate Silver's polling aggregator, cited on March 27, noted that Trump's approval had declined from roughly 52% at the start of his term to approximately 41% across multiple polls, with the largest drops coinciding with tariff announcements and the government shutdown.
What the Numbers Do Not Show
The CNN/SSRS poll finds no evidence that opposition Democrats are gaining from Trump's economic approval decline. 74% of the public say Democrats in Congress have the wrong priorities — a higher share than the 67% who say the same of Trump. Among independents, both parties are seen as equally off-track.
On indicators outside the economy — immigration and health care policy — Trump's approval ratings have held roughly even since the start of the year, the CNN poll notes. And the share of Americans who say things are going badly in the country (67%) has not worsened compared to last fall.
Most Americans (57%) told CNN they see current high gas prices as a temporary fluctuation rather than a permanent shift, though the poll notes that market signals suggest lasting effects on oil prices are likely even if the Iran conflict were to end soon.