Story perspectives

Trump Approval Drops to 36% in New Fox Poll

By Drooid · Oct 19, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Trump Approval Falls

U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval fell to 36% in a new Fox News poll.
RealClearPolling average shows Trump at 38.7% approval and 59.4% disapproval, a minus-20.7-point net.
Republican voters approve Trump at 76%, three points lower than the previous month.
RNC reports over $600 million cash, $400 million MAGA Inc., funding $1 billion ads in September.

Summary

Experts Warn Bias

Experts warn that declining response rates create nonresponse bias, skewing poll accuracy.
Katherine Haenschen of Northeastern University says identifying likely respondents is the biggest polling challenge.
Mary Losch, president of AAPOR, notes polls reliably flag competitive races but struggle with sub-point margins.
Ann Selzer’s 2024 Iowa poll missed President Donald Trump’s 13-point victory, exposing limits of veteran pollsters.

History

Historical Context

In 1936 the Literary Digest mailed ten million questionnaires, received 2.38 million replies and forecast Republican Alf Landon would win 57.08% of the vote. Roosevelt actually captured 60.8%, a 39.08-point swing that ruined the Digest and spurred George Gallup’s scientifically sampled 50,000-person poll, establishing modern election polling. The failure shut the Digest by 1938 and drove pollsters to adopt weighting and disclosure standards still used today.

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Trump Approval Falls

U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval fell to 36% in a new Fox News poll.
RealClearPolling average shows Trump at 38.7% approval and 59.4% disapproval, a minus-20.7-point net.
Republican voters approve Trump at 76%, three points lower than the previous month.
RNC reports over $600 million cash, $400 million MAGA Inc., funding $1 billion ads in September.

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