The US President Donald Trumpʼs approval rating has fallen to its lowest level since he returned to the White House, driven by rising fuel prices and disapproval of military action against Iran.
This is evidenced by the results of a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
As of March 24, 36% of Americans approve of Trumpʼs performance as president, down from 40% last week.
In the first days of Trumpʼs return to the presidency in January 2025, his approval rating was 47%. It has been hovering around 40% since last summer.
His approval rating on the cost of living, a central issue of the campaign, is at just 25 percent, due to a sharp rise in fuel prices after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.
The poll also found that 35% of Americans approve of US strikes on Iran, up from 37% last week. About 61% of Americans oppose such US actions, up from 51% last week.
About 46% of respondents said a war with Iran would make the United States less safe in the long run. Only 26% said it would make the country safer, and the rest said it wouldnʼt have much of an impact either way.
In addition, about 63% of Americans already consider the US economy to be “somewhat weak” or “very weak”.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online nationwide among 1,272 American adults. The statistical error is 3 percentage points.
War in the Middle East
On the morning of February 28, the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. These attacks killed Iranʼs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and almost the entire military leadership of the country — about 40 key high-ranking officials. A new ayatollah was elected on March 8, and he was Mojtaba Khamenei (the son of the deceased Ali Khamenei).
Iran, in response to the US and Israeli attacks, has begun shelling US bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE and firing missiles at Israel. Some Iranian drones and missiles have hit infrastructure and residential areas in Arab countries.
The war has halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea corridor between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. About a fifth of the worldʼs oil exports pass through it, tens of millions of barrels a day. Markets reacted immediately, sending oil, gas and precious metals soaring in price.
In particular, on March 9, world oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel for the first time in almost four years.
To keep prices down, the International Energy Agency has decided to release 400 million barrels of oil, and the US plans to release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve. On March 12, the US lifted sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil that was stuck at sea for 30 days, and a week later it gave permission for Iranian oil.
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