Among the two major political parties in the United States, the Democratic Party has overtaken the Republican Party for the first time in nearly 10 years in a public opinion poll regarding which party is better at managing the economy, according to results released on August 3 (local time).

President Donald Trump's approval ratings have fallen further as no clear solutions have emerged for the Iran war, which has been a driver of inflation in the United States.

According to the poll conducted by Reuters and the polling firm Ipsos from July 29 to August 3 among 4,505 U.S. adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points, 37% of respondents answered that the Democratic Party has a better approach to the U.S. economy.

Respondents who chose the Republican Party stood at 36%, while the remaining 27% answered "not sure" or that another party would do a better job.

Reuters noted, "The Republican Party has held an advantage on economic issues for most of the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, the entire four years of the preceding Joe Biden administration, and the early part of the second Trump administration. However, the Republican advantage has steadily weakened under the second Trump administration, and as gasoline prices spiked due to the Iran war and strained U.S. household finances, the gap has narrowed to zero in recent months."

Gasoline prices have risen by more than 25% compared to before the Iran war, and U.S. consumers currently have to pay an average of more than 1 dollar more per gallon (approximately 3.78 liters) at the pump than they did before the conflict.

When asked which party they would vote for if the midterm elections were held now, 42% of respondents chose the Democratic Party, while 37% chose the Republican Party.

Independent voters with no party affiliation favored the Democrats by 12 percentage points more than the Republicans, according to Reuters.

President Trump's job approval rating also dropped to 35%, a 2 percentage point decrease from last month's Reuters/Ipsos poll (37%).

This is about 1 percentage point higher than the record low of 34% recorded in the June survey.

However, President Trump has dismissed polling results showing a decline in his support as "fake news."

On this day as well, President Trump claimed on his social media platform Truth Social, without citing evidence, "My real approval ratings are at an all-time high, not the numbers fabricated by the fake news media."

He added, "Don't believe the fake poll numbers from the radical left. They are as crooked and corrupt as the Dumocrats [a portmanteau of Democrats and Dumb]. Vote Republican for Make America Great Again."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)