@thebugonline

As President Donald Trump spends the waning days of the midterm elections urging voters to pretend he's running, likely voters say by a 2-to-1 margin that their ballot is a vote against him rather than for him, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist survey. Forty-four percent of likely voters say their vote for Congress is mostly a vote against Trump, more than double the 21% who say it is a vote for him. About a third – 35% – say Trump isn't much of a factor. Trump has made himself the face of the Republican campaign. Since mid-September, he has held rallies in more than a dozen states, including Texas, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa and Florida. Nearly all of his stops have been in states he won in 2024, including Republican strongholds like Alabama and Montana. That comes as the poll found a majority of Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president. Forty percent of likely voters approve of the job he is doing, while 59% disapprove, including 53% who strongly disapprove. Among independents, 34% approve and 64% disapprove. "If your approval rating is upside down, the president doesn't usually say, 'I'm on the ballot,'" said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. "He's been helping to nationalize it to the concern of some of the congressional folks who are putting distance between themselves and him."