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Trump approval rating rises as Republicans back cost-of-living efforts
Trump has gone so far as to describe Democrats' focus on the issue as "a hoax."
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Reuters - Tue, 09, Dec 2025
- 10:11 EST
- 10
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he attends a roundtable discussion on the day he announced an aid package for farmers, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 8, 2025. / REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump's approval rating edged up to 41 percent in the past week as Republicans warmed to his handling of the cost of living, a sign the administration's new focus on affordability might be supporting his popularity, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The six-day poll, which closed on Dec. 8, showed approval of the president rising from 38 percent late last month, which was the lowest since Trump returned to the White House in Jan. 2025. Trump started his second term with a 47 percent rating.
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Republicans performed poorly in a handful of state elections in Nov. 2025 as Democrats hammered the Trump administration over persistently high inflation. But in recent weeks Trump has engaged more forcefully on the topic, scaling back some of his tariff increases and pledging to combat high food prices.
Trump has gone so far as to describe Democrats' focus on the issue as "a hoax." He is scheduled to give a speech on affordability and other economic issues on Dec. 9 in Pennsylvania, a battleground state in national elections. Several congressional races in Pennsylvania will be competitive next year when all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are at stake.
Trump's performance on the cost of living, where he got a 31 percent approval rating, is among his weakest popularity scores. But that was up from 26 percent in late Nov. 2025.
A 10-percentage-point gain among Republicans boosted his number, and 69 percent of Republicans rated him favorably on the issue. Some 85 percent of Republicans approved of his overall performance as president, up from 82 percent last month.
U.S. inflation rates surged under Trump's predecessor in office, Democrat Joe Biden, and the economic pain helped Trump defeat Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president, in the 2024 presidential election. Inflation has remained elevated under Trump, with prices up 3 percent in the 12 months through Sept. 2025, above the historical norm of around 2 percent.
The uptick in Trump's popularity also owed to a modest increase in his approval among Hispanics, a group that swung in Trump's direction in last year's election. Some 34 percent of Hispanics in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said they approved of Trump's performance in the White House, up from 32 percent in late Nov. 2025.
The latest survey gathered responses from 4,434 U.S. adults nationwide and was conducted online. It had a margin of error, a measure of precision, of 2 percentage points in either direction.
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