Donald Trump · Deep dive

Standing

49the highest ever recorded

Across 153 Gallup readings spanning both terms, none reached 50.

How is he regarded, measured over time? For someone holding office the answer with a long enough record to compare is the Gallup job-approval series, asked the same way since the 1930s. One thing stands out across 153 readings: the number has never reached fifty, and it barely moves. This covers both, tests the second against the obvious objection, and separates the floor from the ceiling — because only one of them is unusual.

Six of six — the base set is complete

Every subject at this tier is asked the same six questions, fixed before the subject is chosen so the set cannot be picked to suit an argument. The others written for this record are Private Money, The Output, Reach, Affiliations and The Legal Record. With this one the base set is complete, so the overlay dives — the ones specific to what this subject has been — are unblocked. None of them could have been started before now.

Back to the full record.

highest approval ever recorded

First term. Second term: 47

readings at or above 50%

Out of 153 across both terms

41.0

mean approval this term

Gallup’s own figure for the term is 41

readings removed as unsourced

Of 35 previously shown for this term

lowest reading this term

An ordinary floor — G.W. Bush fell to 25

The finding

Approval has never reached 50%

Across 153 Gallup readings spanning both terms, the highest is 49 — recorded in the first term — and 47 so far in the second. Every other president since Reagan reached at least 57 at some point, and G.W. Bush reached 90.

G.W. Bush90

Clinton73

Reagan68

Obama67

Biden57

Trump 4549

Trump 4747

Highest single Gallup reading of each presidency. Source: Gallup, via the American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara).

Both terms, day by day

Trump 45Trump 4750% — never crossed

Each point is a published Gallup reading, placed at its day into the term.

Readings through 2026-08-11. This dive belongs to the record it sits inside. The wider question of how divided opinion has become is owned by Political Polarization, which is upstream of this page wherever the two touch.