Trump approval rating rises as Republicans back cost-of-living efforts

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By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s approval rating edged up to 41% 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 Monday, showed approval of the president rising from 38% late last month, which was the lowest since Trump returned to the White House in January. Trump started his second term with a 47% rating.

Republicans performed poorly in a handful of state elections in November 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 Tuesday 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% approval rating, is among his weakest popularity scores. But that was up from 26% in late November.

A 10-percentage-point gain among Republicans boosted his number, and 69% of Republicans rated him favorably on the issue. Some 85% of Republicans approved of his overall performance as president, up from 82% 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% in the 12 months through September, above the historical norm of around 2%.

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% of Hispanics in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, up from 32% in late November.

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.

(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)