Democrats lead Republicans in House vote choice as Trump's approval rating hits record low by ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, agencies USA   18 Oct. 2026   Just over two-weeks out from consequential midterm elections, a record share of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump, about 7 in 10 say gasoline is unaffordable and that the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.   Midterms   By an 8-percentage point margin, likely voters support the Democratic candidate in congressional district elections over the Republican candidate, 52% to 44%. That margin remains 8 points among registered voters overall, 50% to 42%, an improvement from a July Washington Post-Ipsos poll for Democrats, when just 3 points separated the Democrats from the Republicans.   Democrats are bolstering their lead among independent likely voters, who support Democratic candidates by a 21-point margin, 56% to 35%.   The economy   Half or more Americans call every household purchase category measured “unaffordable” in the latest poll, including 71% who now call gasoline unaffordable, up from 28% who said the same in February, before the war in Iran drove up fuel costs. The national average gas price has topped $4 a gallon for a record 158 days in 2026 so far.   An increasing share of Americans also call healthcare unaffordable (65%, up from 56% in February) along with home energy and utility costs (57%, up from 45%) and rent or mortgage (50%, up from 37%). And 60% call groceries unaffordable.   Growing shares of Americans call relative luxuries unaffordable, too. A 61% majority of Americans call going out to dinner unaffordable, up from 49% in February. Even more, 69%, say a weeklong vacation is unaffordable, up from 60%. And 80% call a new car unaffordable, up from 74% in February.   In all, 75% of Americans rate the nation’s economy negatively, including 35% who call it poor. Roughly half, 48%, say they are “not as well off” as they were when Trump became president, a high over both of his presidential terms.   Likely voters who rate the economy poorly support Democrats over Republicans in the generic ballot by 72 points. Likely voters who say they are not as well off support Democrats over Republicans by 60 points.   Beyond just the economy, Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is moving in: 72% say things in the country are headed in the wrong direction; just 26% say things are heading in the right direction.   President Trump   Trump’s weak approval ratings do not bode well for his party given that midterms are often a referendum vote on the president. And Trump’s approval rating has reached a record personal low of 33% percent in the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, lower even than after the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol when 38% approved. Today, 66% of Americans disapprove, a record high over both terms.   Just over half of Americans, 52%, strongly disapprove of Trump, matching his strong disapproval rating after the Jan. 6 attack, and a record high for his second term, according to the poll.   Over both of his terms, a record-low 22% of independents approve of Trump and a record-high 76% disapprove, including 58% who strongly disapprove – another record high over both of Trump’s terms.   Among Republicans, a record-low 39% strongly approve of Trump, down from 63% in February 2025. Today, 21% of Republicans disapprove, up from 12% in February 2025. That includes nearly half of non-MAGA Republicans (47%) who disapprove today.   Majorities of Americans also disapprove of how Trump is handling every issue measured, and for many issues, Trump is at or near record-low approvals.   His worst issue is handling the cost of living in the U.S. -- perhaps the defining issue for the 2026 midterms -- and his ratings are similarly low to what they were in the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll in April. Now, just 21% approve while 77% disapprove. Trump has similarly low ratings on handling inflation: 23% approve and 75% disapprove.   On the economy overall, 28% approve of how Trump is handling things and 70% disapprove, a record-low approval and a record-high disapproval over both of Trump’s terms.   On Iran, 27% approve of how Trump is handling the situation and 70% disapprove. A 65% majority of Americans say it was a mistake for the U.S. to use military force against Iran. On relations with U.S. allies, 30% approve of how Trump is handling things and 68% disapprove.   About two-thirds of Americans say since taking office, Trump has “gone beyond his authority as president. Majorities of Americans say Trump is “not committed” to respecting the authority of Congress (68%), protecting freedom of the press (67%), respecting the authority of the courts (66%), free and fair elections (61%) or protecting freedom of speech (61%).   A record-high 66% of Americans say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, up from 62% in February and 56% in September 2025. Majorities of Democrats (94%) and independents (73%) along with just over a quarter of Republicans (27%) say Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself.   When it comes to the federal government paying for TV ads promoting Trump and his policies, 74% say it is inappropriate, including 55% who say it is totally inappropriate. A federal judge has ordered the government-funded ads to stop running.   Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to handle 10 out of 12 issues measured in this poll. U.S. adults trust Democrats over Republicans by 23 points to handle healthcare and by 14 points to handle education, the cost of living and inflation – all by wider margins than they have recently.   Americans trust Democrats over Republicans by 11 points to handle the situation with Iran, by 9 points to handle reducing corruption in the government. Americans trust Democrats by 9 points to better handle the economy, the largest margin they’ve had on the issue since 2022. More Americans call Trump and the Republican Party “too extreme” – 66% and 55%, respectively – than the Democratic Party (36%)..   http://abcnews.com/Politics/democrats-lead-republicans-house-vote-choice-trumps-approval/story?id=137322849 http://abcnews.com/alerts/Elections http://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/house-charts-analysis/2026-house-open-seat-tracker http://www.cookpolitical.com/survey-research/cpr-polltracker/trump-trendlines-in-the-us-midterm-elections-294713 http://theconversation.com/what-recent-polling-suggests-will-happen-in-the-us-midterm-elections-294713 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/02/midterm-races-control-congress-charts-visuals   http://theconversation.com/how-gas-prices-became-a-lightning-rod-for-voter-anger-ahead-of-the-us-midterms-294663 http://theconversation.com/how-trumps-disaster-aid-delays-and-fema-cuts-could-galvanize-the-movable-middle-in-the-2026-elections-294236 http://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/wholesale-inflation-running-rampant-highest-increase-in-four-years-due-to-iran-war/ http://www.newyorker.com/a-guide-to-the-2026-us-midterm-elections http://www.ms.now/elections http://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/20/poll-voters-see-republicans-as-the-party-of-big-tech-tax-breaks-01127726 http://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-2025/ http://democrats.org/new-data-wages-drop-to-the-lowest-point-in-more-than-two-years/ http://www.c-span.org/program/us-senate/sen-schatz-on-rising-costs/683759 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/former-gop-governor-david-beasley-says-trumps-demeaning-rhetoric-pushed-him-from-party   http://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-sons-investments-won-billions-pentagon-contracts-election/story?id=137049598 http://apnorc.org/projects/more-americans-say-trump-has-prioritized-his-personal-business-interests-than-the-country-as-a-whole/ http://notabovethelawcoalition.org/let-them-eat-cake-new-report-finds-trump-family-pocketed-nearly-3-billion-while-millions-of-americans-lost-food-assistance/ http://notabovethelawcoalition.org/sen-whitehouse-rep-raskin-and-constitutional-law-experts-mark-constitution-day-by-detailing-trump-administrations-assault-on-the-rule-of-law   http://www.justsecurity.org/153971/boots-off-ballots-troops-elections-in-practice/ http://www.justsecurity.org/159538/no-emergency-exception-ban-troops-polls/ http://www.justsecurity.org/159524/collection-just-security-2026-midterm-election/ http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preventing-voter-intimidation-federal-agents-polls http://www.brennancenter.org/midterms-2026 http://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/federal-agents-at-the-polls http://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/vote   http://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/wealth-inequality-has-grown-during-the-trump-administration/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/trump-congressional-republican-agenda-has-harmed-rural-communities http://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/new-census-data-underscore-importance-of-food-assistance-and-health-coverage http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-tracker-people-are-losing-food-assistance-as-the-harmful-2025 http://www.americanprogress.org/article/on-the-first-anniversary-of-the-obbba-millions-of-americans-have-been-left-behind/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/lowering-the-cost-of-living-for-american-families/   http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/26/billionaires-wealth-soars-as-workers-struggle http://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/07/cost-of-living-poll-groceries-gas http://www.protectourcare.org/hospital-crisis-watch-900-hospitals-clinics-and-nursing-homes-at-risk-or-closing-as-communities-reel-from-republican-health-care-cuts/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/26/us-medicaid-work-requirements-risk-coverage-loss-for-millions-of-people http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-tracker-people-are-losing-food-assistance-as-the-republican-megabill http://rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/one-year-later-how-obbbas-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-have-weakened-democracy/ Visit the related web page
	Brazil has made major economic gains under President Lula da Silva by Center for Economic and Policy Research   30 Sep. 2026   An analysis released this week documents some of the major economic gains that Brazil has made over the past four years during the third term of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is currently in a close battle for re-election against rival Flavio Bolsonaro.   The analysis, published by the US-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), finds that, between 2022 and 2025, the Brazilian economy grew by a cumulative 8.9%, easily outpacing the average rate of growth in other South American countries.   This growth has been coupled with a drop in the unemployment rate, which has fallen from more than 9% in the second quarter of 2022 to just 5.4% in the second quarter of 2026.   Both poverty and food insecurity fell dramatically in the first two year’s of Lula’s term, the analysis finds, and in 2025, “Brazil was removed from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Hunger Map after chronic undernourishment fell below 2.5%.”   CEPR’s report also gives credit to Lula’s policies for improved economic conditions, including a new minimum wage law, an expanded maternity leave program, and increased average payments to low-income families given through the Bolsa Família program.   The economy during Lula’s term is not perfect, however, and the report flags high interest rates set by Brazil’s central bank as a key factor in raising consumers’ borrowing costs.   CEPR also noted the negative impact of online betting apps, which Lula has pledged to ban starting next month, on Brazilian workers.   “Brazilian households lost an estimated R$62.5 billion (US$11.2 billion) to online betting in 2025,” the report says, “while some 802,000 Bolsa Família households spent more than 2% of their income on betting in January 2025.”   Jake Johnston, CEPR’s director of international research, said that “the past almost four years have seen Brazil accomplish a great deal in terms of bringing people out of poverty, creating jobs, curbing hunger, and raising standards of living.”   “This was done,” Johnston added, “despite the lingering impact of the Covid pandemic, external economic shocks that affected the global economy, and excessively high interest rates.”   The first round of Brazil’s presidential election is set to take place on Sunday, and recent polls show Lula with a narrow lead over Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is still serving a criminal sentence for efforts to instigate a coup after his loss in the 2022 election.   http://cepr.net/publications/the-social-and-economic-record-of-lula-da-silvas-third-term/   Sep. 2026   The attempted Regime Change operation in Brazil must be Thwarted, by Mark Weisbrot. (Los Angeles Times)   One of the most important elections in recent Latin American history will take place Sunday in Brazil. Incumbent president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has recently been emphasizing the issue of national sovereignty. One reason: The challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro, has the strong backing of the Trump administration—and the US has been intervening heavily on his behalf.   In the last few months of Brazil’s election campaign, Trump has met with Bolsonaro at the White House, imposed new tariffs on Brazilian goods and tried to send State Department officials to Brazil. (Both Brazilian and American officials said the presence of Trump administration operatives would cast doubt on the integrity of the voting there.)   A letter last week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio from 31 members of Congress documented additional hostile actions and concluded that “the United States is acting as an agent of interference and destabilization.”   The election is forecast to be very close, and the sovereignty issue could be persuasive for swing voters.   Trump’s intervention undermines a basic and generally cherished right to self-determination, as well as the right to democracy itself. It is even clearly illegal under the Charter of the Organization of American States, to which the United States is a signatory.   But Brazilians currently have reasons to attach even more urgency to preserving their sovereignty and independence. This can be seen in the recent history of Brazil and Latin America and in the economic impact of political independence on living standards.   Starting with Brazil: Lula was a metalworker and union leader who helped found, and then lead, the Workers Party. He served two consecutive terms as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 and left office with one of the highest approval ratings in the world—83%.   There were compelling reasons for that, which stemmed from the government’s changes in economic and social policy. These changed the lives of tens of millions of people in Brazil. GDP per person, the most basic measure of living standards, grew about four times as fast as it did in the eight years prior to Lula’s presidency.   Poverty was reduced by 61% and extreme poverty by 64%. There was also a 57% increase in the real (inflation-adjusted) minimum wage. University enrollment almost doubled.   Lula was able to implement these and other life-changing reforms because he broke with the “Washington consensus” policies that had governed economic decision-making in the region as perhaps never before, from 1980 to 2000.   This included economic policies that were often decided at the International Monetary Fund or sometimes other Washington-controlled institutions. The result was a disaster: Those two decades saw the worst long-term economic growth failure in Latin America for more than 100 years.   This historic economic growth collapse helped bring about the election of left-of-center governments in the majority of the region for the first time. As in Brazil, these governments were more independent than the prior regional norm and therefore pursued more progressive and effective economic policies.   The turnaround was historic: From 2002 to 2013, the percentage of the population of Latin America living in poverty fell to 28.4 from 45.6 after increasing over the prior two decades.   The independence that these governments were able to establish is what the Trump administration appears to most want to abolish. Hence their current efforts at regime change in Brazil. This is the big prize. It’s the largest country in Latin America, and a Lula government won’t support the Trump administration in its efforts to control the region. But Lula’s opponent would almost certainly be a solid Trump ally.   That is Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator handpicked by his father Jair Bolsonaro, who was president from 2019 to 2023; he has branded himself “Bolsonaro 2.0.”   Flavio and his team are trying to link Lula to the biggest bank fraud in Brazilian history, which forced a deposit insurance payout of almost $8 billion for about 800,000 victims. But the dirt is actually on Flavio and his allies. He is up to his neck in this scandal. Nothing on Lula.   Bolsonaro 1.0 took a page from the Trump election-denial playbook when he lost the election of 2022 to Lula. He was unable to get enough military commanders to support a decree to prevent Lula from taking office. The nation’s Supreme Court subsequently convicted Bolsonaro of leading an attempted coup.   The Brazilian “January 6” was on Jan. 8, 2023, when supporters of the defeated president vandalized Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court and demanded that the military intervene to overturn the election result.   Last year Mr. Trump tried to stop the trial of Bolsonaro by slapping Brazil with an additional 40% tariff. Most Brazilians rejected the economic collective punishment as an assault on their national sovereignty, electoral democracy and justice system—which it clearly was. Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced to prison.   Almost every one of the democratically elected, social democratic governments in Latin America that came to power in the 21st century faced efforts from Washington to weaken, destabilize or remove it..   Most recently, Mr. Trump has increased economic sanctions against Cuba. Cuba’s infant mortality rate has increased 148% since the US began tightening its sanctions, which currently include a devastating cut off of fossil fuel and electricity.   In the most recent national elections in Colombia (June 21) and Honduras (last Nov. 30), Trump was seen as threatening economic harm (implicitly in Colombia and more explicitly in Honduras), if these citizens did not vote for his chosen candidate.   This is the recent and regional context of the fight for Brazil’s future. The Trump administration interventions, with the collaboration of the Bolsonaro clan, have made the Flavio campaign into another attempted US regime change operation. This should be defeated, for the sake of Brazil and the whole hemisphere.   * Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), in Washington, DC.   # Brazil election to goes to run-off on 25 October, as neither candidate obtained more than 50% of the votes required to win outright in the fist round of voting.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168395 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/24/trump-brazil-election-interference http://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/01/us-trump-rubio-meddling-brazil-election http://www.theguardian.com/world/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva http://valorinternational.globo.com/politics/news/2026/09/30/us-interference-in-brazilian-elections-is-alarming-fgv-professor-says.ghtml http://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct8ml5 http://lucid.substack.com/p/rule-of-the-lawless-chiles-coup-the http://cepr.net/publications/the-social-and-economic-record-of-lula-da-silvas-third-term/ http://cepr.net/publications/colombia-under-petro-social-gains-amid-monetary-and-fiscal-constraints/ http://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tight-brazil-election-challenges-fragile-gains-for-amazon-conservation/ http://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/right-wing-leaders-could-rule-95-of-the-amazon-by-2027-experts-warn/ Visit the related web page
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