President Donald Trump has stanched the bleeding of independent voters with his new focus on affordability, but has a long way to go winning them back in time to help the GOP’s chances in the 2026 congressional midterm elections, our weekly White House Report Card finds.
Three pollsters told Washington Secrets this week that the president is underwater with independent voters, who mostly cite the economy, war and taxes as their issues of concern. Overall, his disapproval rating is about twice that of his approval rating among independents.
Generally, however, he has bounced up from his approval lows, and pollster and grader Jeremy Zogby suggested that “all is not lost.”
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Trump’s new affordability kick is credited with helping him begin to recover among independent voters. Improvements in gas prices and the general Christmas spirit have also helped, said the pollsters.
Zogby has been closely monitoring the president’s support among independent voters and currently has him at a 31% approval to 66% disapproval. He noted in his grade below that former Vice President Kamala Harris won the independent vote in 2024 by three points.
Cygnal founder and pollster Brent Buchanan’s numbers echoed Zogby’s, and he told Secrets that they are better than a month before. “Trump turned around a lot of groups in the last month. I credit it to him talking more about affordability issues though there is room for improvement on empathy and message discipline,” said Buchanan.
16% of voters say Trump is focused more on domestic affairs over foreign affairs.
46% say Trump should be focused more on domestic affairs – a 30pt delta.
While the new Monroe Doctrine is smart, the messaging focus needs to be on stateside policies.https://t.co/8IdERG0WP0
— Brent Buchanan, Pollster (@brentbuc) December 12, 2025
Rasmussen Reports pollster Mark Mitchell said that Trump has bounced off his lows but suggested waiting until after Christmas to size up his support.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin said that it’s good for Trump to be addressing affordability finally, but that voters want him to do something about high prices and not just blame former President Joe Biden.
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Jeremy Zogby
Grade: D
The new John Zogby Strategies interactive poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted Dec. 5 to 7 has President Donald Trump’s approval-disapproval rating at 46%-52%.
The president holds his MAGA base with an 86% approval rating among Republicans, while 13% disapprove. On the other hand, 83% of Democrats disapprove, and 14% approve of the president’s job.
We’ve consistently highlighted Trump’s collapse in approval among independent voters, but what we now see is a sustained trend. Our poll reports 66% of unaffiliated voters disapprove of Trump’s job in the White House, versus just a 31% approval rating.
What it all means:
Trump won the 2024 election without winning independent voters (former Vice President Kamala Harris won them +3).
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It was Trump’s expanded coalition, including first-time voters, Hispanics, under-age-30 voters, and more, who all by and large moved to his camp.
But today, independents two-to-one do not have confidence in Trump’s job performance.
While the president manages to execute his rapidly unfolding agenda and hold his Republican base, he is 35 points underwater with independent voters.
Independent voters need something more concrete, primarily with regard to inflation, war, and taxes. That’s the only recipe to get them back. All is not lost.
Jed Babbin
Grade: B-
This wasn’t a great week for President Donald Trump and his team because the word of the week was “affordability,” the lack of it being the cause du jour for his Democratic critics. They blamed Trump for the lack of it on everything from food to housing.
Meanwhile, Trump agreed to send highly advanced NVIDIA chips to China, said that Ukraine was losing its defensive war against Russia and also said that European leaders were very weak, which is certainly true.
The “affordability” issue arises at a bad time for Trump. It’s clear that prices are very high but seem to be coming down. One example is gasoline, which was less than $3 per gallon when I filled a tank on Friday. The bad timing is because people are tired of Trump blaming former President Joe Biden for everything and want him to take responsibility.
The Europeans are in a snit (which is permanently the case for the French) over Trump’s language about them and about “civilizational erasure,” a line in the National Security Strategy. It’s about the Eunuchs failing to defend themselves from everything, including Russia and immigration. Calling them weak is manifestly true, but not great diplomacy.
The NVIDIA chips, made in Taiwan for a U.S. company, are almost — but not quite — being sent to China. They are subject to an odd new security review. If they are sent to China, it will be a very bad decision by Trump & Co.
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Jeremy Zogby is the managing partner at John Zogby Strategies. His podcast with father and senior partner and pollster John Zogby can be heard here. Follow them on X @ZogbyStrategies
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin
