Trump approval stays near career low as gas price fears rise

Gasoline fears are doing more political damage than a single approval number can show. Donald Trump’s standing stayed pinned near the low end of his presidency, while a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 59% of Americans expected U.S. gas prices to keep rising over the next year.

The June 3-8 survey of 4,531 U.S. adults found 35% approved of Trump’s handling of the presidency, unchanged from mid-May and just above the 34% low reached in April. His earlier low was 33% in December 2017. Disapproval stood at 63%, and on the closely watched cost-of-living measure, only 22% approved while 70% disapproved.

The numbers point to a White House in which inflation-sensitive costs remain the most immediate threat to public support. Gas prices have been a constant pressure point, and the poll showed only 17% of respondents thought prices would fall over the next year. In a separate congressional ballot test, registered voters preferred Democrats over Republicans 41% to 37%, suggesting the economy’s mood is bleeding into broader political judgment.

The backdrop is the administration’s military campaign against Iran. Reuters reported that Trump ordered strikes on Iran on February 28 alongside Israel, and that Iran’s response largely shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that had carried a fifth of global oil trade. The pace of attacks and counterattacks had eased since April, but peace talks had not produced a lasting agreement.

That conflict has left a direct mark on energy markets. Only 36% of Americans approved of the U.S. strikes on Iran, and just 25% said the benefits were worth the costs. On June 4, the International Energy Agency said the Middle East conflict had caused an unprecedented disruption to global fuel markets and forced its largest-ever release of emergency oil stocks.

The June poll also showed how quickly the issue had hardened. In a Reuters/Ipsos survey in May, 64% of Americans said gas-price increases had affected their household finances, and 83% expected prices to keep rising in the next month. For Trump, that combination is politically dangerous: foreign policy fallout is not staying in foreign policy, but landing directly in the kitchen table economy.