With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, President Donald Trump has received another warning from voters.

A new Wall Street Journal poll puts Trump's job approval rating at just 37 percent, while 61 percent of registered voters say they disapprove of his performance.

According to the Journal, that is the lowest approval rating it has recorded for any president heading into a midterm election since its comparable polling began in 1990.

The survey of 1,500 registered voters was conducted September 16-21.

The result is particularly significant because it comes as Trump has encouraged Republicans to make the November elections a referendum on his presidency.

At the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month, Trump urged supporters to approach the election as though he himself were on the ballot.

That strategy could now present Republican candidates with a difficult political calculation.

TRUMP'S DECLINE IS SHOWING UP ELSEWHERE

The Wall Street Journal survey is not the only recent poll showing Trump's approval falling.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released September 21 found Trump's approval at just 32 percent, the lowest level measured during his political career by that poll.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey also found weakening support among Republicans. Trump's approval within his own party fell from 82 percent the previous week to 73 percent.

Those numbers suggest that Trump's declining approval is not simply the result of Democrats opposing his presidency.

Independent voters and some Republicans are also expressing dissatisfaction.

THE COST OF LIVING REMAINS A PROBLEM

The economy remains one of Trump's biggest political vulnerabilities.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey found that only 17 percent of Americans approved of Trump's handling of the cost of living.

Americans continue to face high prices, while the war with Iran has contributed to higher energy costs and renewed inflation concerns.

Those economic pressures are especially dangerous politically because Trump repeatedly promised during his campaigns that his policies would bring prices down.

Instead, voters are entering the final weeks before the midterms with affordability still among their biggest concerns.

THE IRAN WAR ADDS ANOTHER PROBLEM

Trump is also confronting public dissatisfaction with the continuing war with Iran.

Only 34 percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll approved of the U.S. strikes on Iran.

Perhaps more troubling for the administration, 82 percent of Americans surveyed said they believed the conflict was likely to continue for an extended period.

Trump initially suggested the conflict would be relatively short.

Months later, the fighting continues, energy markets remain disrupted and Americans are feeling some of the economic consequences.

REPUBLICANS HAVE THEIR OWN PROBLEM

Trump isn't technically on the ballot in November.

Republicans in Congress are.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found registered voters preferring Democratic congressional candidates over Republican candidates by 43 percent to 35 percent.

That eight-point Democratic advantage was the largest measured by Reuters/Ipsos during 2026.

Polling is not an election result, and individual congressional races can differ substantially from national surveys. Republicans also retain significant advantages in some districts and states.

But the direction of recent polling explains why Republican officials and strategists are increasingly concerned.

Trump has made himself central to the Republican midterm campaign.

He has asked voters to judge Republican candidates as extensions of his presidency.

Now those candidates must campaign while the president's approval ratings are among the weakest of his second term.

A REFERENDUM ON TRUMP

Trump has spent years transforming the Republican Party around his political identity.

That relationship helped Republicans when Trump's popularity energized conservative voters.

In 2026, however, the same relationship creates a different risk.

If voters are unhappy with the president, Republican congressional candidates may have difficulty separating themselves from him — particularly after Trump explicitly encouraged Americans to treat the midterms as a referendum on his presidency.

There are still weeks remaining before Election Day, and public opinion can change.

But with Trump's approval at 37 percent in the Wall Street Journal poll and 32 percent in Reuters/Ipsos, Republicans are approaching November with a problem that campaign advertising cannot easily erase.

The president wanted the midterms to be about Donald Trump.

Increasingly, they are.