President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to 38%, the lowest since his return to power, with Americans unhappy about his handling of the high cost of living and the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The four-day poll, which concluded on Monday, comes as Trump's grip on his Republican Party shows signs of weakening.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a measure to force the release of Justice Department files on Epstein.
Trump had opposed the move for months while one of his closest supporters in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, turned into a harsh critic over his resistance. Trump reversed his position on Sunday as lawmakers prepared to move forward without him.
The survey showed Trump's overall approval has fallen two percentage points since a Reuters/Ipsos poll in early November.
The poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,017 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

Trump started his second term in office with 47% of Americans giving him a thumbs up.
 The nine-point decline since January leaves his overall popularity near the lows seen during his first term in office, and close to the weakest ratings for his Democratic predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden.
 Biden's approval rating sank as low as 35% while Trump's first-term popularity fell as low as 33%.
REPUBLICAN SUPPORT SLIDES
Trump has weathered a host of crises during his political career, including multiple prosecutions after he left office that were related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Through it all, he has kept a strong level of support among Republican voters.
The new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed his approval rating among Republicans at 82%, down from 87% earlier in the month.
This year, the president has been particularly dogged by perceptions he isn't doing enough to help households with everyday expenses, an issue that also hit Biden's administration hard and contributed to Trump's victory over Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, in last year's presidential election.
"It's all about prices," said Doug Heye, a Republican political strategist.
"People are furious when they go out and spend money at the grocery store, and they can't believe what they are spending."
Just 26% of Americans say Trump is doing a good job at managing the cost of living, down from 29% earlier this month.
 The pace of inflation has remained high by historic standards since Trump took office in January. U.S. consumer prices were up 3% in the 12 months through September, even as the job market has weakened.
Some 65% of respondents - including one in three Republicans - disapprove of Trump's performance on the cost of living.
Trump's signature economic policy push has been to hike taxes on imported goods to prop up American manufacturing, but many economists believe the policy has led to higher prices.
 Expressing frustration over the public perception of his handling of the economy, Trump last week dialed back import taxes on coffee, beef, bananas and other staples.
MIDTERM ELECTIONS AHEAD
His sagging popularity could make Republicans more vulnerable in next year's congressional elections, though the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed voters continue to see Trump's Republican Party as having a better approach to economic policy.
"What we're seeing is probably the biggest test of his presidency in terms of his grip on the Republican Party," said Mike Ongstad, an independent strategist and former Republican who has not supported Trump's presidential campaigns.
Only 20% of Americans - including just 44% of Republicans - approve of how Trump has handled the Epstein case, the Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
Some 70% of poll respondents - including 87% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans - said they believe the government is hiding information about Epstein's clients.

She had become... Read more

My best friend hated my husband.
She always said, "Don't trust him!"
Weeks after our wedding, she left town.
It was sudden. I cried, but my husband said, "Just let it go!"

3 years later, she returned. I froze when I saw her; she had become… a completely different person.

Her once perfectly styled hair was now a tangled mess, her clothes wrinkled, and in her arms was a little boy—maybe a bit over a year old—clinging to her like he was afraid the world might take her away.

“Emma?” I whispered, unsure if it was really her.

She blinked, and for a moment the tough, sarcastic girl I knew peeked through her exhaustion.

I rushed toward her. “Oh my God—are you okay? What happened? Where have you been?”

She gave a tired smile and adjusted the baby on her hip.

“I’m a single mom now,” she said softly. “Working full-time and taking care of him alone… this is what it does to you.”

Her voice cracked, and I felt my heart twist. We sat down on a nearby bench so she could rest.
As she rocked her son gently, she told me everything.

She’d moved because she thought she found a stable relationship, someone who would help raise the baby.
But he left the moment things got difficult.
She’d been working long shifts, living paycheck to paycheck, barely sleeping, barely surviving.

I listened, stunned, hurt for her, angry for her.

But a small question burned at the back of my mind.

After a while, I finally asked,
“Emma… about what you said before I got married. Why did you tell me not to trust my husband?”

She looked at me—really looked—before letting out a short, dry laugh.

“Oh, that?” she said. “Come on… nobody ever says nice things about their ex.”

My breath caught. “Your ex?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. We dated a long time ago. Before he met you. Before everything.”
She looked down at her hands. “It ended badly, and I… never really liked how it ended. So when I saw him again, I couldn’t help myself. I guess old feelings don’t always die quietly.”

I didn’t know what to say.
Suddenly the past felt different—heavier, complicated in ways I never imagined.

But then she added something that shook me even more.

“But don’t worry,” she said, her voice softening. “I don’t want him back. That chapter is over.”
She pulled her son closer. “This little guy is my whole world now.”

Before I could respond, her son tugged on her shirt, whining. She kissed the top of his head and smiled—a weary, beautiful smile of a mother who had survived too much and still kept going.

And just as I thought the conversation was ending, she hesitated… then whispered:

“There’s something else I didn’t tell you. Something about the day I left town.”

The way she said it made my heart drop.

“What is it?” I asked.

She took a deep breath, her eyes glistening.

“That day… I wasn’t running from town. I was running from someone.”

Her voice trembled, and she held her child a little tighter, as if the memory alone could reach out and hurt her.

I whispered, “Who were you running from, Emma?”

She swallowed hard.
“The father of my child.”

My breath hitched. She looked away, staring at the ground like she was ashamed of something she never should’ve blamed herself for.

“He wasn’t… a good man,” she continued. “He drank. A lot. And when he drank, he became someone else—someone controlling, someone who wanted to know where I was every minute, someone who would explode if I even talked to another person.”

Her fingers shook as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I wasn’t pregnant when I ran,” she said quietly. “I had just realized I couldn’t breathe around him. Every day felt like walking on broken glass, waiting for the next time he’d snap.”
She closed her eyes. “So I packed a small bag and left in the middle of the night.”

My heart twisted painfully as she continued.

“I settled in a small town for a while, trying to rebuild myself. And for months, I thought I was finally free.”
A bitter smile ghosted across her face. “But one day… he found me.”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

“He showed up at my door like nothing had happened,” she whispered. “Said he forgave me, like I was the one who had done something wrong. And I was stupid—I let him talk. I let him stay. I thought maybe he had changed.”

She paused, tears filling her eyes.

“And that’s when I got pregnant.”

Her voice broke.

“But he didn’t change. He got worse. Drinking more. Controlling more. Angry at everything and everyone. When the baby was born, he barely touched him. Barely looked at him. But he still demanded we ‘belong to him.’”

Her son whimpered softly, and she rocked him gently, kissing his forehead.

“I realized… if I stayed, my child would grow up thinking that kind of love was normal.”
She looked up at me—tired, hurting, but determined.
“So I ran again. This time with a baby strapped to my chest. And I’ve been running ever since.”

I reached for her hand, my chest tightening with a mixture of sorrow and fierce protectiveness.

“Emma… why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why didn’t you ask for help?”

She gave a small, broken laugh.

“Because I didn’t know if I deserved help. And… because when someone controls you long enough, you forget what freedom looks like.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The world around us seemed to fade, leaving only two women—one who had survived unimaginable fear, and one who realized she had never truly understood her friend’s pain.

Finally, she looked into my eyes and whispered:

“And now that he knows I ran with his child… I’m scared he might try to find me again.”