Trump approval hits 33% as poll finds two-thirds say he is enriching himself in office

Today’s Focus

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday shows President Donald Trump’s job approval has fallen to 33%, a new low for his second term, according to reporting by The Guardian covering the survey.

The same poll found that 66% of Americans believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself personally. The Guardian reported that figure includes 34% of self-identified Republicans, a 12-point jump from a comparable poll in September 2025.

The numbers land roughly two weeks before the November midterm elections. Trump has been traveling to competitive states, including a Sunday stop in Kansas to campaign for Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), whose race Republican strategists view as unexpectedly tight.

The polling arrives alongside fresh scrutiny of the president’s private business footprint. NPR reported Saturday that Trump plans to close and renovate a public golf course in Washington, D.C. turning it into what he described as a “world-class” facility, despite an ongoing legal challenge from a federal judge who temporarily paused parts of the project.

The Guardian reported that Trump referred to the judge who slowed the golf conversion as a “crazed lunatic” in weekend remarks. The president has also pressed ahead with family-branded ventures in cryptocurrency, hospitality, and overseas real estate since returning to office in January 2025.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said Trump’s assets are managed by his adult children and that the president draws no operational income from the Trump Organization. The Washington Post-ABC poll did not test specific business deals; it asked respondents whether they believed Trump was using the office for personal gain.

Democrats are already incorporating the enrichment finding into closing midterm messaging, while Trump allies argue the poll undercounts his base and overstates concern among independents.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Trump allies contend the poll is an outlier shaped by sampling choices and media framing. Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley told reporters this month that mainstream surveys have consistently underestimated Trump’s standing since 2016, and that internal GOP polling shows the president above 40% in battleground states.

Supporters also push back on the enrichment question itself. Sen. Marshall, campaigning with Trump in Kansas, said the president “took a pay cut to serve” and argued that Trump’s branding deals predate his political career. The White House has repeatedly noted that Trump donates his federal salary.

Conservative commentators at the Wall Street Journal editorial page have argued that the D.C. golf course project, while politically awkward, is a legal use of federal land authority and will generate public revenue. They say critics are conflating aesthetic objections with corruption.

Allies also point to policy wins. Trump told the Kansas crowd that inflation has eased, border crossings are down, and new tariff revenue is funding tax cuts, according to Guardian coverage. “The numbers that matter are jobs and prices, not approval,” Marshall said.

Critics argue

Democrats say the poll confirms what they have argued for a year: that the president is monetizing the office. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Sunday the 66% figure “cuts across every demographic” and reflects visible conduct, not partisan spin.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, cited the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures and foreign hotel licensing deals as evidence that emoluments concerns raised in 2017 have intensified. “A third of his own party now sees it,” Raskin said in a statement reported by The Guardian.

Government ethics groups echoed the point. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said the D.C. golf course plan and the president’s weekend attack on the presiding judge show “a pattern of personal interest driving public decisions.”

Critics also seized on The Guardian’s reporting that Trump branded the federal judge “a crazed lunatic,” calling it an attempt to intimidate the judiciary over a project with direct financial benefit to the Trump Organization.

What the experts say

Nonpartisan pollsters urge caution with any single survey. Courtney Kennedy, vice president of methods at Pew Research Center, has written that approval ratings in a president’s second term typically drift downward in the fall before midterms, and that a 33% reading is low but within the historical range for unpopular incumbents.

Gallup’s long-running presidential approval series shows second-term presidents averaging about 46% approval at this point in the cycle since 1953, with George W. Bush (38%) and Richard Nixon (27%) as recent lows, according to Gallup’s published data.

On the enrichment question, political scientist Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College has noted in published research that perceptions of corruption historically track partisan identity closely, so cross-party agreement is unusual and tends to signal durable shifts rather than news-cycle reactions.

The nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported in September that 72% of Americans say “major changes” are needed to federal ethics rules, up from 64% in 2023, suggesting the Post-ABC finding is consistent with a broader trend rather than a one-off result.

By the Numbers

33%: Trump’s job approval in the Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday, according to The Guardian.

66%: share of Americans who say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, per the same poll.

34%: share of Republicans who agree, a 12-point increase from September 2025, according to The Guardian.

46%: average second-term presidential approval at this point in the cycle since 1953, per Gallup’s historical series.

72%: share of Americans who told Pew Research Center in September that federal ethics rules need major changes.

2: approximate number of weeks until the November 2026 midterm elections.

10: number of people arrested by Israeli police in connection with a West Bank settler attack on an American photojournalist, per BBC, a separate story drawing White House attention this weekend.