Trump Approval Ratings Plunge Amid Growing Foreign Policy Concerns and Low Poll Numbers
Donald Trump is heading into upcoming midterm elections carrying a second-term low approval rating and facing widespread public skepticism regarding foreign policy outcomes, according to recent polling data and projection models.
According to a projection published by USA Today, Trump is currently underwater in 47 states and the District of Columbia. A separate Forbes poll notes that Trump’s approval rating has sunk to a second-term low, driven in part by foreign policy concerns, with 80% of respondents expressing the belief that Iran war will drag on.
### Foreign Policy and Trade Pressures
The administration enters the legislative midterms lacking major, definitive foreign policy achievements, according to Reuters reporting. The diplomatic and economic landscape features multiple unresolved flashpoints initiated earlier in the presidential term.
These frictions include the March 2018 imposition of tariffs on foreign-made steel and aluminum, citing national security concerns. That action triggered retaliatory duties from China in April 2018 on approximately $3 billion worth of U.S. products, escalating into a broad trade war that eventually saw the U.S. levy tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods while Beijing taxed $110 billion in American exports. Although Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a figurative cease-fire at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires to negotiate a broader framework, durable economic accords remain subject to ongoing diplomatic strain.
Additional international flashpoints continue to shape public perception. In May 2018, the administration formally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement—and reinstated severe economic sanctions on Tehran covering sectors from aircraft imports to petroleum exports. That same month, the U.S. embassy was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, breaking with decades of precedent and drawing criticism from regional allies. Furthermore, high-stakes diplomacy with North Korea, highlighted by the June 2018 Singapore summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, established broad commitments toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but implemented few means to enforce its ambitious commitments.
### Domestic Policy Strains and Institutional Standoffs
Domestically, the administration’s hardline border enforcement measures have added to political friction ahead of the midterms. Trump instituted a blanket zero-tolerance policy in May 2018 that resulted in the separation of more than 2,600 children from their parents at the southern border before the administration reversed the practice in August 2018. Concurrently, the administration deployed 5,000 troops to harden the southern border in response to Central American asylum seekers.
Further compounding the administration’s diplomatic isolation, the U.S. withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2018, an announcement delivered by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
As campaigns mobilize for the midterms, federal agencies continue managing the downstream economic and diplomatic consequences of these trade restrictions, sanctions regimes, and border directives without finalized multilateral treaties to solidify the administration’s stated objectives.