Trump vs History: How president's poll numbers compare to Biden, Obama, Bush ahead of midterms

With six months to go until the midterm elections, President Donald Trump's poll numbers remain underwater.

The two-month-long war with Iran, which public opinion surveys indicate is unpopular with many Americans, and a surge in gas prices as a direct result of the fighting have triggered a further slide in Trump's approval ratings this spring.

The president's polling woes are a political drag on his party as Republicans work to defend their slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities in this year's elections. That's because the presidential approval rating has long been a much-watched barometer of a president's clout and how well his party may perform in the ensuing midterms.

But the frustrating figures are not a problem unique to Trump — his most recent predecessors in the White House also saw their negative numbers weigh down their parties in midterm showdowns.

WHAT OUR LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SHOWS

Trump stood at 42% approval and 51% disapproval in the latest Fox News national poll, which was conducted April 17–20. Some more recent surveys put the president's approval rating in the mid to upper 30s, with his disapproval reaching or topping 60%.

The president's approval is hovering just above 40%, with his disapproval above 56%, in an average of all the most recent national polls, according to a compilation from RealClearPolitics.

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"It may come as cold comfort to the White House, but there’s a tendency for voters to be harsh toward all presidents," Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps conduct Fox News polls with Democrat Chris Anderson, noted.

He's not kidding.

Four years ago, as he faced the 2022 midterm elections, then-President Joe Biden was also dealing with sky-high gas prices. His approval rating stood at 45%, with 53% disapproval, in a Fox News poll conducted in late April and early May 2022. And a RealClearPolitics average of all the national polls at that time put Biden's numbers at 42%-53%.

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Trump's two most recent two-term predecessors were also well below water six months out from their second midterm elections.

Then-President Barack Obama stood at 43%-52% in early May 2014, and former President George W. Bush was deep into negative territory at 35%-59% at the same time in 2006.

Republicans were shellacked in the 2006 midterms and Democrats were pummeled in the 2014 midterms.

While Biden's anemic numbers did Democrats no favors in 2022, the party was able to beat expectations and hold their House majority thanks in part to the outsized emphasis on the issue of abortion, following a blockbuster opinion that summer by the Supreme Court's conservative majority that scrapped the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which had legalized abortion nationwide for a half century.