President Donald Trump’s approval rating among Republicans has slipped slightly across several major polls, marking a rare decline in support within his core base.
A new John Zogby Strategies survey conducted on October 12 found that 80 percent of Republican voters approved of Trump’s performance, down from 85 percent in August. Similarly, a YouGov poll published on October 13 showed 84 percent of Republicans expressing approval, compared with 88 percent in mid-September. Meanwhile, the latest Quantus poll recorded approval among Republicans at 86 percent, a 3-point drop from 89 percent in late September.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Even small dips in intra-party support can have outsized effects if they signal declining enthusiasm among the Republican base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
While Trump’s support among Republicans remains strong overall, the figures suggest a slight erosion in enthusiasm compared with the steady approval levels he enjoyed through much of the summer.
What To Know
It comes as the government shutdown enters its third week. The federal government shuttered at the beginning of the month after Congress failed to break a funding deadlock and pass a measure to keep agencies running. The government funding dispute largely centers on whether to include an extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies in the spending bill.
Democrats say health care protections must be preserved, while Republicans say funding and policy should be handled separately.
As the shutdown continued, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Monday that it was “starting to affect” the U.S. economy. “This is getting serious. It’s starting to affect the real economy. It’s starting to affect people’s lives,” he told Fox News.
Analysts estimate it could shave roughly 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off economic growth for each week that it continues.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced economic output by about $11 billion, including $3 billion that it never regained.
Amid the funding impasse, which Trump has suggested could result in the permanent layoff of some federal workers, polls suggest that a small minority of Republicans are souring on the president.
A YouGov/Economist poll showed that approval of Trump’s handling of the shutdown among Republicans has fallen slightly since last week, from 79 to 75 percent. Some 69 percent of Republicans also say lawmakers should compromise to end it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has accused Republicans of “refusing to negotiate,” saying their proposal amounted to a unilateral funding plan that excluded Democratic priorities.
Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, have countered that Democrats are holding government funding “hostage” over policy riders unrelated to the budget. Johnson has publicly stated that he has “nothing to negotiate,” a stance that has reinforced perceptions of gridlock in Washington.
On Tuesday, the Senate once again failed to advance the House-passed stopgap spending bill, marking the eighth consecutive vote to fall short of the 60 required to move forward.
What People Are Saying
Peter Loge, a professor of political communication at George Washington University, told Newsweek: “The horse race coverage of Trump’s approval rating can be entertaining, but weekly changes up and down don’t ultimately matter much. President Trump’s disapproval rating is the same today as it was in April. He hasn’t had a net positive approval rating since March, and has not had a majority of support among those polled in a long time. Similarly, the president’s approval rating has only topped 45 percent once since June.
“People know who Trump is and most people have strong opinions about him. Those opinions shift based on world events and the randomness of polling, but generally speaking more people disapprove of Trump’s presidency than approve of it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: “I guess Democrats are not going to be satisfied until military families and government workers are lining up at food banks or visiting payday lenders or simply charging necessary items like milk and bread on their credit cards to be repaid late.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “The ACA premium crisis is not a fix-it-later issue, but rather a fix-it-now issue. Republicans may think they can dig in until the next ice age, but a fork in the road is coming their way whether they like it or not.”
What Happens Next
The Senate will vote on Wednesday for a ninth time on the House-passed stopgap bill.
Update 10/16/25, 10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Peter Loge.
