Two-thirds of Americans believe President Donald Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, according to a new national poll that also shows growing concern among Republican-aligned respondents ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections.
The Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos survey found that 66% of U.S. adults think Trump is using his position for personal financial gain, compared with 56% in September 2025. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, that figure increased from 22% to 34% over the same period.
The findings, published by The Washington Post on October 18 and subsequently covered by The Guardian, highlight a widening perception that the president is benefiting financially from his office. They measure public opinion, however, rather than establishing that Trump has engaged in illegal or improper conduct.
Concern About Trump's Personal Enrichment Rises
The 10-percentage-point increase in the share of Americans who believe Trump is enriching himself is notable, but the changing attitudes among his political allies are particularly significant.
According to the Washington Post's analysis, 34% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now believe Trump is using the presidency for personal enrichment, an increase of 12 percentage points from September 2025.
Views among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents were already overwhelmingly negative. Their share increased from 88% to 92%, while the proportion among independents who do not lean toward either major party remained essentially unchanged.
That pattern indicates that much of the overall increase has come from Republican-aligned Americans rather than from voters who were already strongly critical of Trump.
The findings arrive as Democrats seek to make government ethics and conflicts of interest part of their midterm campaign message. Republicans have also emphasized fighting corruption in government, although the two parties have focused on different allegations and priorities.
What the Poll Asked—and What It Cannot Prove
The Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll surveyed 2,545 U.S. adults between October 9 and 13, 2026, using Ipsos' probability-based KnowledgePanel. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, and the overall margin of sampling error was approximately plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The survey directly asked respondents whether they thought Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself. Additional information about the sample, weighting and questionnaire is available through the original Ipsos polling documentation.
The wording matters because the question measures what Americans believe about the president's financial conduct. It does not ask respondents to determine whether particular transactions violated federal law or whether any specific financial benefit resulted from a presidential decision.
Likewise, the increase among Republican-aligned respondents describes a change between two survey measurements. The subgroup has a smaller sample than the overall poll, and the results do not establish why individual respondents changed their opinions.
The survey therefore provides evidence of a changing political perception, not a legal finding or a demonstrated cause of that change.
How the Findings Compare With Other Polling
The Washington Post findings are consistent with broader concerns recorded in separate polling about Trump's financial interests, although the surveys do not measure precisely the same thing.
An Associated Press-NORC poll published in October found that roughly six in ten Americans believed Trump had profited from the presidency in ways they considered either illegal or unethical.
That survey, conducted September 24–28 among 2,140 adults, distinguished between perceived illegality and unethical behavior. Its results should not be treated as directly interchangeable with the Washington Post's broader question about personal enrichment.
The concerns arise amid scrutiny of Trump family business ventures, including cryptocurrency-related activities and international commercial agreements. Associated Press reporting has documented substantial financial activity involving Trump-linked businesses and raised questions about potential conflicts of interest.
The White House has denied that Trump's business interests create conflicts and has maintained that his decisions serve the country's interests.
In its October 18 report, The Washington Post said the White House had not responded to its request for comment. The newspaper also noted that Trump aides have argued his financial situation has worsened during his presidency, while Trump has attributed gains reflected in his financial disclosures to stronger financial markets.
Business earnings, changes in personal wealth, potential conflicts of interest and legally established wrongdoing remain distinct matters. The polling results alone cannot resolve those questions.
What the Findings Could Mean for the Midterms
The enrichment findings emerge alongside broader dissatisfaction with Trump's job performance and the economy as Republicans prepare to defend their congressional majorities.
The same Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll placed Trump's presidential approval rating at 33%, with 66% disapproving. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, said they were financially worse off than when he returned to office in January 2025.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos survey released October 19 found presidential approval at 31%. That poll also showed Democrats leading Republicans by 47% to 35% among registered voters asked which party they would support in congressional elections.
These figures come from different surveys and should not be interpreted as identical measurements. Both, however, point to a difficult national political environment for Republicans.
The broader approval findings are examined separately in NewsFusion365's coverage of Trump's declining approval rating and the Democrats' midterm polling advantage.
For Republican candidates, the growing share of party-aligned Americans expressing concern about Trump's financial conduct could complicate efforts to keep voters focused on economic and policy priorities. Whether those concerns affect turnout or voting decisions remains uncertain.
National surveys cannot determine the results of individual House and Senate contests, which depend on state and district electorates, candidates and turnout.
The clearest conclusion from the October polling is narrower but politically important: concern about whether Trump is benefiting personally from the presidency has expanded beyond his established critics, reaching a larger share of Americans who generally identify with his political party.
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