Gallup will stop publishing approval ratings of individual political figures, including the U.S. president, ending a practice the analytic firm has maintained for nearly 90 years.
A Gallup spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Feb. 11 that the change took effect at the beginning of this year, saying that tracking approval and favorability for specific politicians “no longer represents an area in which Gallup can contribute in the most unique way.”
“This is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities, and is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science.”
Gallup stated that it will continue its “Gallup Poll Social Series,” which tracks long-term political and social trends, as well as its quarterly review that focuses on the labor market. The company will also keep running the “Gallup World Poll,” which is conducted in some 140 countries.
Gallup’s presidential job-approval question dates back to 1938, when founder George Gallup asked Americans whether they approved or disapproved of the way President Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing his job. Over the decades, Gallup’s presidential approval series became a go-to source for journalists, historians, and researchers seeking a data-driven look at how the public views a former or sitting president.
The tradition ended with Gallup’s final published approval rating of President Donald Trump in December 2025, which stood at 36 percent, down from 47 percent in January 2025, when he returned to the White House.
Gallup’s online presidential approval data in their current format extend back to President Harry Truman, who averaged 45 percent approval during his time in office from April 1945 to January 1953. The highest average rating in the poll’s history belongs to President John F. Kennedy, who maintained a 70 percent approval rating from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.
Trump’s first term ended with a Gallup average approval rating of 41 percent, which matches the rating in the first year of his second term.
Although Gallup has stressed that discontinuing approval and favorability surveys is a strategic decision made independently, the move comes as Trump threatened legal action over unfavorable polling that he denounced as fake.
In January, Trump said he would expand his existing defamation lawsuit against The New York Times after the newspaper, in partnership with Siena Research Institute, published a poll finding that just 34 percent of independent voters approved of his job performance about one year into his second term—a result he said did not reflect reality and was fabricated to damage him.
“The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results—Not just the fact that it was heavily skewed toward Democrats. They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!”
The New York Times dismissed the president’s criticism, saying in a statement that the paper’s polls “have been widely cited for their rigor.”
