The numbers in the Fox poll
Thirty-six percent of registered voters approve of Trump's handling of the presidency and 64 percent disapprove, according to a Fox News poll conducted October 9 to 12 among 1,202 registered voters, with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. Fox said the result is the lowest approval rating it has recorded for Trump in either term. His rating had held at 39 percent since May.
The decline was concentrated among voters under 45, households earning less than $50,000 a year, non-White voters and people without a college degree. Republicans still back him 76 to 23 percent. Independents disapprove 78 to 22, and Democrats 98 to 2.
Prices dominate the mood
Approval of Trump's handling of inflation fell to 22 percent, a new low in the survey. Seventy-four percent rated the economy negatively and 53 percent expect it to get worse next year. Nearly 60 percent named the cost of living as their top economic concern, and 55 percent said inflation is not at all under control.
Other surveys point the same way. An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,403 registered voters from October 10 to 12 put approval at 38 percent against 61 percent disapproval, with a margin of error of 3.5 points. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,506 respondents from September 30 to October 5 had approval at 32 percent and disapproval at 65.
Three weeks to the midterms
The survey lands less than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, when control of the House and Senate is at stake. Trump's approval has been a central line of attack in Senate debates this month, and Republicans in competitive districts have spent the autumn trying to separate their own records from the White House's numbers on prices.
Allies of the administration argue that the sample and the timing, during a stretch of rising fuel costs, understate the effect of tax and energy measures they say will show up next year. For candidates on the ballot in three weeks, the practical question is narrower: whether voters who tell pollsters they are angry about grocery bills turn out, and whether they vote against the party that controls Congress.