Only 3 states approve of Trump, polls show

Sarah Cutler, The Idaho Statesman on Aug 28, 2026

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BOISE, Idaho — Recent polling and projections of Americans’ approval of President Donald Trump painted a grim picture — but three states were the rare bright spots on the horizon for the administration.

In 47 states, more residents disapproved of Trump’s performance than those who approved.

But in Idaho, Wyoming and West Virginia, Trump garnered a positive approval rating, according to August projections by the Economist, based on its tracker of YouGov polling over time. Trump’s net approval rating in Idaho is +7 points, according to an Economist chart. Only Wyoming has a stronger pro-Trump number at +9.

To Matthew May, a political science professor who runs Boise State University’s Idaho Public Policy Survey, Idahoans’ support for Trump didn’t come as a surprise. Idaho has a “longstanding reputation as one of the reddest states in the nation,” he noted.

An influx of Californians, many of them even more conservative than native Idahoans, has only turned the state deeper red over the last decade or so, he said.

There’s a “constant influx” of new arrivals of a “potentially much more strident political persuasion,” he said. “You tend to see that coming out to play in terms of the larger demographics.”

He noted one unexpected trend in Idaho’s own related polling. When the Idaho Public Policy Survey asks Idahoans about their opinion of where the state is headed, and then about their opinion of how the economy is doing, they tend to answer both questions either positively or negatively. Often, May said, that corresponds to whether the political party they support is in power.

But during last year’s poll, many Idahoans’ answers diverged: They were optimistic about the state’s direction, but pessimistic about the economy.

That finding was “unusual,” May said, and perhaps reflected a tension between people’s experience of the economy and their “instinct, when it comes to politics, to continue to support their side.”

Disapproval of Trump has spread to several of the battleground states he won in 2024, which could determine which party takes control of Congress in November’s midterm elections, Newsweek reported.

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