More Than Seven In Ten Americans Think The U.S. Is On The ‘Wrong Track’ Ahead Of The Midterms: Poll

With just over two weeks to go until November's midterm elections, President Donald Trump's approval ratings, along with the proportion of voters optimistic about America's future, are falling, a poll released on Sunday has shown.

For the first time in Trump's second term, the proportion of Americans saying that the country is on the "right track" has sunk below 30%, compared to 71% who say that the U.S. is on the "wrong track", the new NBC News Decision Desk Poll, conducted between September 28 and October 12, revealed.

The poll shed light on other troubling statistics for Republicans going into the November polls; Trump now enjoys a net approval rating of -32%, with 66% of respondents reporting that they disapprove of the president, compared to just 34% who said they approved of him, another second-term record NBC low for Trump.

The proportion of respondents saying that they "strongly" disapproved of Trump's performance also hit a second-term high of 51%.

Democrats will be hoping that Trump's tanking popularity ratings will translate into significant gains in House and Senate races and, ultimately, the opposition party gaining control of both houses of Congress.

Most polls predict that the Democrats will gain control of the the House, and their chances of winning the Senate, which was previously seen as unlikely, are reportedly increasing.

The poll showed that respondents who self-identified as registered voters said that they would prefer Democrat over Republican control of Congress by a margin of ten points (55-45%).

Despite the growing potential of Democrat success at the ballot box, Americans still hold largely negative views of the party; the NBC poll found that 57% of American adults view the Democrat party unfavorably.

Nevertheless, the Republican party fared worse, with 63% of respondents saying that they saw the GOP in an unfavorable light.

This overall negative rating of the two dominant American parties is partially explained by the widespread perception that both Republicans and Democrats are corrupt.

When asked whether there was an imbalance in corruption levels between the two parties or both were equally corrupt or uncorrupt, most of the polls' respondents (56%) said that corruption was "equally a problem among elected officials in both parties."

Ahead of the midterms, the poll showed that the top priority for voters was the economy, with 31% citing it as the issue that mattered most to them.

Trump, despite promising all American adults a so-called "Trump dividend" of $5,000 if Republicans win the election, has particularly low approval ratings on economic issues, with an approval rating of only 27% on handling the cost of living.

Trump has much higher approval ratings (43%) on the issue of border security and immigration, but only 10% of voters said that immigration mattered to them most ahead of the midterms.