Majority of Americans think Donald Trump is using presidency to enrich himself, new poll finds – live

Within the new polling from the Washington Post and ABC, 48% of respondents said they are financially worse off than when Trump returned to office in 2025.

According to the Post, that represents the highest percentage saying this about any president in this series of polls since 1986.

A majority of those surveyed – 67%– also said that Trump is not committed to protecting freedom of the press. This comes after a protracted battle to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House grounds. A federal judge has subsequently issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from enforcing the ban.

Meanwhile, 61 % people also said that Trump is not committed to free and fair elections, according to the poll.

A new Washington Post-ABC poll shows that Donald Trump’s approval rating has reached a new low – 33%.

This comes, just over two weeks away from the November midterms, as the president continues crisscrossing the country as part of his campaign blitz for embattled Republicans.

Notably, the new polling also shows that a majority (66%) of Americans believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself. Looking at that data even further – 34% of Republicans believe Trump is enriching himself. This is a 12-point jump from last September.

Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington. We’ll hear from him, and the first lady, Melania Trump, when they sign an executive order in the Rose Garden at 11am ET.

The president will then travel to Wichita, Kansas, where he’ll hold a midterms rally at 7pm ET to stump for Senator Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent, who we noted earlier is facing a increasingly competitive re-election race against his Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton.

Hamilton, a pastor, is hoping to be the first Democratic senator that Kansans send to Washington in almost a century.

We’ll bring you the latest as that gets under way.

US disaster survivors still await at least $10bn in federal aid: ‘It’s devastating’

Survivors of extreme weather disasters across the US are facing long waits for government assistance funds to rebuild their lives, with the last long-term recovery funds allocated for Hurricane Milton that hit Florida two years ago. Government officials estimate more than $10bn is needed in long-term disaster recovery funding to rebuild affected communities in Los Angeles county and St Louis, Missouri, alone.

Since 1993, more than $111bn have been appropriated and allocated for CDBG-DR. But the long-term recovery program has no standing fund, meaning that Congress must appropriate the money disaster-by-disaster. This has caused long lag times in recovery funding before. Survivors of the 2020 earthquakes in Puerto Rico waited 655 days after the disaster was declared for CDBG-DR funding to be allocated, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center report.

In July 2026, CDBG-DR was written into law for the first time, authorizing the program for three years. While advocates hoped the legislation would create a reliable framework to disseminate disaster relief funds more quickly, no more money has been appropriated for the CDBG-DR program.

It’s been 21 months since the LA wildfires were declared a disaster and survivors are still waiting

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has denounced the settler attack that left the Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine badly beaten and needing surgery as a “despicable act of terror” and called for the arrest and prosecution of those responsible.

Levine, 63, an award-winning journalist who lives in Israel, was set upon last Friday by masked Israeli settlers who used clubs and other weapons to attack Palestinian people attempting to harvest their olives in occupied West Bank towns.

The photographer, who is in a hospital in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv recovering from hand surgery, broken ribs and other injuries she sustained in the attack, said she was beaten for more than 10 minutes by the settlers, who also stole her camera, passport and phone.

Huckabee, a rightwing ally of Donald Trump with a track record of hardline, pro-Israel rhetoric, was notably blunt in his condemnation of what he called the “vicious and cowardly attack” on Levine.

“We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this,” Huckabee added. “Attacking a female photographer is despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards. Dishonorable act of senseless violence.”

Donald Trump has attacked US district judge Ana Reyes over her interventions to slow his plan to ‘restore’ the East Potomac golf course in Washington DC.

Citing environmental and historic preservation concerns, Reyes had ruled earlier this year that the federal government must give notice before any substantive construction work on the East Potomac golf course could proceed, and last week issued an order halting the removal of trees at the site, which she called “inexcusable”.

The renovation is among a number of projects Trump was pursuing to reshape ‌the White House and ‌other Washington landmarks. Many of his projects, including plans for a huge ballroom at the White House, the installation of his own name on the Kennedy Center and construction of a massive arch, have been challenged in courts.

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said:

“The United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course, and make it into a great, safe, and prestigious golf course. They have an absolute right to do so. It’s as simple as that! The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane? The tapes have been blocked from usage by the judge.

“The random golfer bringing the ridiculous lawsuit has ZERO STANDING! The experts at “Interior” are allowed to do this First Class renovation “as of right.” They do not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY! The finished product will be World Class, and bring income and great prestige back to D.C. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT.”

The renovation is among a number of projects Trump was pursuing to reshape ‌the White House and ‌other Washington landmarks. Many of his projects, including plans for a huge ballroom at the White House, the installation of his own name on the Kennedy Center and construction of a massive arch, have been challenged in courts.

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state denied on Monday that the United ⁠States had paused some intelligence sharing with Ukraine, contradicting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Rubio, speaking to reporters during a visit to Uzbekistan on Monday morning, said ⁠intelligence was in fact never interrupted in the first place.

“I don’t know where ​he’s getting these things ‌or why he’s saying these ‌things to the press. You should go back and ask him. There’s ‌been no pause.

“What he should be focused on, and what we want to be focused on, is bringing an end to this war. That’s what he should be focused on.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy had thanked the Trump administration on Sunday for resuming intelligence sharing between the two countries, but maintained the US had intentionally throttled its Starlink satellite internet access so that Donald Trump could send a “message” in his ongoing feud with the Ukrainian president.

In an interview on NBC, Zelenskyy said the US had “unblocked” intelligence on impending Russian ballistic missile strikes, which have pounded the country’s energy infrastructure as winter draws in.

“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side. We are very thankful for this. Now it works,” Zelenskyy told NBC’s Meet the Press. “Only [the] United States has this unique intelligence to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles. And we didn’t get it during ballistic attacks during three days.”

Zelenskyy also said that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for suddenly limiting the speed at which Starlink terminals worked in Ukraine, hampering drone operations on the frontlines as well as some air defence missions.

“It was a message from [the] American government to limit the speed,” he said. “And technically, SpaceX did it.”

Vice-president JD Vance expected to hold rally in North Carolina

The US vice-president JD Vance is expected to hold rally in North Carolina on Monday as the Trump administration continues ramping up rallies to support candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.

Vance’s visit comes as Republicans look to gain ground in North Carolina’s Senate race, as well as in two key US House races. Republican Michael Whatley, whom Trump endorsed, is running against former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper for the seat vacated by Republican US Senator Thom Tillis, who is not seeking reelection.

Henderson, in the heart of the state’s 11th congressional district, and Greenville, just outside the 1st congressional district are where voters strongly supported Trump in 2024 but now, as voters face rising gas and grocery prices, are in play. Democratic victories there could help them flip control of Congress.

Ukraine did not receive a warning from the US about an impending Russian missile attack on Sunday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, reviving concerns that Washington is withholding intelligence in order to bully Kyiv into capitulating to Moscow.

Yuri Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said on television on Monday morning that Ukraine had not received a warning before a Russian missile barrage hit power plants in Kyiv at around 11pm. Earlier, a Ukrainian government official had told the Guardian the US had not warned the capital about the impending missile strike.

Ukraine did receive a warning before a successive strike, at 3am, Ihnat added.

“Once again, Russia launched a ballistic missile attack in multiple waves throughout the night, and once again, there was no warning from our partners,” Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post on Monday morning.

“When the supply of missiles for Ukrainian air defence is blocked, and Russia receives sanctions relief or delays, it is, unfortunately, a denial of reality on the part of our partners,” the president added.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Donald Trump will attend a campaign rally in Kansas later today, where incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall is in an unexpectedly close race with Democrat Adam Hamilton.

Marshall’s medical billing scandal is threatening to erode his support, though he is still favored to win.

Hamilton, the founder of the largest Methodist congregation in the US, won in a crowded Democratic primary earlier this year.

Hamilton won 35% of the vote in the 11-candidate Democratic primary. His campaign announced he had broken a quarterly fundraising record in the state, and two major election forecasters say the Senate race has grown more competitive since Hamilton won his party’s primary.

Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and more than half a century has passed since one of their nominees even came close.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday that “restoration work will begin” next month to a historic public golf course in Washington DC despite a federal judge’s court order to pause his plans over environmental and historic preservation concerns. He wrote that the facility would be transformed into “one of the Best and Most Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World”.

• Ilhan Omar’s attorneys have asked the US Department of Justice to return property that federal agents removed days earlier from her home during a search. The lawyers for the Minnesota Democrat contended that the seizure as “neither justified nor lawful”, according to a letter published on Friday. The federal investigation into Omar was launched just weeks ahead of the 3 November midterms, in which Omar is on the ballot.

• Former US president Barack Obama condemned comments by Trump’s “border czar” that the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Omar of her citizenship and deport her. Obama wrote Sunday morning, on X, that “the full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.