Americans’ Disapproval of Congress Ties Record High

Americans' Disapproval of Congress Ties Record High: Gallup
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Good evening. President Trump told Fox News today that there is "no time frame" and no particular rush to end the war with Iran. Trump had initially said that combat operations would last four to five weeks. That was seven weeks ago. The president has since offered shifting statements about how long he expected the war to last. With the status of peace talks now uncertain, Trump said he does not feel pressure regarding his newly extended ceasefire or new negotiations with Iranian officials. "People say I want to get it over because of the midterms. Not true," Trump said.

Here's what else is happening.

Americans' Disapproval of Congress Ties Record High: Gallup

Americans' negative view of Congress has climbed to a record high, according to a new Gallup Poll. Disapproval of Congress has climbed to 86%, matching a high last seen in Gallup's survey in late 2015.

Just 10% of Americans now approve of the job congressional lawmakers are doing, just a notch above the all-time low of 9% set in November 2013.

Gallup notes that disapproval of Congress has hit 86% five times since 1974, with three of those instances coinciding with a government shutdown or the threat of one. That includes this poll, conducted among 1,001 adults from April 1 to 15, as the Department of Homeland Security was mired in a shutdown that started in mid-February. Congress also reached an 86% disapproval rate in December 2011 and February 2012, when lawmakers were fighting over federal spending and the budget.

Gallup's Megan Brenan suggests that the negative views of Congress in the latest survey may also reflect frustration over rising gas prices, tensions over the Iran war and presidential war powers, ethics scandals that have recently led to the resignations of three House members and Republican displeasure over lawmakers' failure to pass the SAVE America Act, the tighter voting requirements that President Trump had called his top priority.

"Republicans have driven most of the recent decline," Brenan writes. Just 20% of Republicans now approve of this Republican-led Congress, down from 61% as of last July. "By contrast, Democrats have consistently rated the current Congress poorly, and independents' views have been relatively stable at a low level," Brenan adds.

Of course, low approval ratings for Congress are nothing new: "Congress' approval ratings have been mostly underwater since 1974, averaging 28% approval and 65% disapproval," Brenan writes. "More recently, approval has remained below 30% for most of the past five years, with sustained stretches in the teens."

The 2019th Congress started in January 2025 with a 17% approval rating, which peaked at 31% in March 2025, shortly after Trump returned to the White House. But approval fell and disapproval surged last October, as the government started what would become the longest shutdown ever.

The margin of sampling error for the new poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Trump Baselessly Claims Virginia Redistricting Vote Was 'Rigged'

Democrats are celebrating what could be a major victory, as Virginia voters last night narrowly approved a redistricting plan that is expected to help the party add four seats in November's midterm elections, boosting the chances that it retakes control of the House.

The redistricting battle started when Republicans redrew the map in Texas and Democrats reciprocated in California. It has now spread across multiple other states, to the point that the GOP sees the potential to win nine more redrawn seats in November while Democrats think they can pick up 10 seats from their own redistricting efforts. Florida is expected to be the next battleground.

Democrats need to gain just a few seats in the midterms to capture control of the House - and the power to put up legislative and investigative roadblocks to the Trump agenda. But the outcome of November's midterms - including in the redrawn districts - remains far from certain.

Trump again claims vote was 'rigged': In a social media post, President Trump reverted to a familiar claim, baselessly alleging that the election was "rigged" and that the language on the ballot question was purposely confusing. "As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about," he wrote.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has led Democrats' vigorous pushback against what he calls a MAGA power grab, responded to Trump with a social media post of his own: "You started this redistricting war. The people of America will finish it. Pipe down."

Trump Admin Eyes $500 Million Rescue Package for Spirit Airlines

The Trump administration is reportedly closing in on an agreement to rescue Spirit Airlines, the troubled discount carrier that has declared bankruptcy twice in the last three years and is currently facing the threat of liquidation.

As The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, the federal government could loan the airline as much as $500 million. In return, the government would receive warrants that would allow it to take an ownership stake in the company. President Trump met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy late Tuesday to work out the details of the agreement.

Trump mentioned Spirit in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. "Spirit's in trouble, and I'd love somebody to buy Spirit," he said. "It's 14,000 jobs, and maybe the federal government should help that one out."

Duffy also discussed Spirit on Tuesday, though he seemed to be sending the opposite message. "What we don't want to do is put good money after bad, and there's been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven't found their way into profitability," Duffy told Reuters. "If no one else wants to buy them, why would we buy them?"

However the deal works out, the White House made it clear that it blames the previous administration for Spirit's troubled state. "Spirit Airlines would be on a much firmer financial footing had the Biden administration not recklessly blocked the airline's merger with JetBlue," White House spokesman Kush Desai told CNBC.

An "ultra-low-cost" carrier, Spirit has repeatedly faced financial difficulties. It recently sold off planes and raised prices, raising hope that it was moving toward recovery, but the recent surge in jet fuel prices due to Trump's war with Iran has pushed the airline to the brink once again, forcing the company to discuss possible liquidation with its creditors.

Chart of the Day: Maybe Gas Is Cheap?

Gas prices have risen sharply in the United States since the start of the war with Iran, with the current price hovering at about $4 a gallon. As painful as that may be for millions of American drivers, it's worth remembering that the country has some of the lowest gas prices in the industrialized world. As this chart from The Wall Street Journal shows, many countries pay far more for fuel, with the high prices driven in large part by much higher taxes.

"In most places in Europe, tax composes 50%-60% of the retail price of fuel," the Journal says. "Germans paid an average of $8.75 a gallon in March, more than half of which stemmed from value-added taxes and fuel excise duties."

Chart of the Day: Maybe Gas Is Cheap?

RFK Jr. Grilled on Vaccines, Drug Prices, Kid Rock

Appearing before two Senate committees Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fielded questions about a variety of issues, including President Trump's signature prescription drug program, vaccines and recent promotional videos featuring the musician Kid Rock.

In testimony before the Finance Committee and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Kennedy faced generally supportive inquiries from Republicans and more contentious ones from the other side of the aisle.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked why some of the drugs sold through Trump Rx, a government-run website that claims to offer "the world's lowest prices on prescription drugs," are sometimes priced far higher than alternative sources.

"If you're buying a drug on TrumpRX, there is a more than one in four chance that Trump's discount is actually a price hike," Warren said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, also took aim at the Trump drug exchange, which the administration launched in February. "While the American people wait for their costs at the pharmacy to go down, the administration touts TrumpRx, which actually offers higher prices for drugs than what most people can get through their insurance," Wyden said. "There is no bigger fraud on the planet when it comes to drug costs than Donald Trump."

Kennedy pushed back against the claims, saying that Warren was mixing up name-brand drugs and generics. He also defended Trump's claims about the discounts he had won on drug prices, which some critics say are exaggerated and violate the rules of math. "President Trump has a different way of calculating percentages," Kennedy said. "If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to $10, that's a 600% reduction."

On vaccines, Kennedy defended the shot for measles, saying "We promote the measles vaccine." Kennedy, who rose to prominence in alternative health circles by questioning the safety of vaccines and other standard medical procedures, added that the science is clear that the vaccine prevents the disease with a 97% effectiveness rate.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, said that public faith in vaccines had suffered over the last year due to false statements about them.

"I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases, and when I see outbreaks numbered in the thousands, and people dying once more from vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic," Cassidy said.

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan questioned the claim that HHS is doing all it can to promote the measles vaccine. She asked about what she called Kennedy's "vanity projects" - a series of promotional videos featuring him, including one in which he works out shirtless with Kid Rock. "I have noticed that while HHS has done relatively little promotion of the life-saving measles vaccine ... you have been doing a lot of your own self-promotion using official government channels and resources," she said.

Hassan asked if Trump had authorized the use of public funds to pay for the videos. "I've never discussed it with the president," Kennedy said.

Fiscal News Roundup

Views and Analysis