SUMMARY
- Gallup is ending its presidential approval rating series after eighty eight years.
- The Gallup presidential approval rating has been a benchmark since Harry Truman’s presidency.
- The company said the move aligns with evolving research goals, not external pressure.
WASHINGTON — Gallup will stop tracking the presidential approval rating after nearly nine decades, the polling firm confirmed Wednesday, saying the decision reflects a shift in research priorities rather than political pressure as President Donald Trump continues to criticize unfavorable polls.
The decision marks the end of one of the most widely cited measures of US public opinion.
The Gallup presidential approval rating has long served as a reference point for lawmakers, investors and historians assessing presidential performance and public sentiment.
Gallup began measuring presidential approval in the late nineteen thirties, creating a continuous data record spanning multiple administrations.
The series captured pivotal national moments, including George W. Bush’s 90 percent approval rating following the Sept. 11 attacks.
President Trump’s second-term approval rating fell to 36 percent in December, among the lowest recorded by Gallup. He began his second term at 47 percent.
Trump has repeatedly criticized polling organizations and media outlets reporting unfavorable numbers.
After a January survey by The New York Times and Siena College showed his approval at 40 percent, Trump threatened to expand an existing defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.
The Times defended its methodology. Gallup said it will discontinue favorability ratings of individual political figures as part of a broader research shift.
“Our commitment is to long term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” a Gallup spokesperson said, adding that work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series and World Poll.
Clifford Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs, said long running approval benchmarks provide “historical comparability that markets and policymakers rely on.”
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said consistent approval metrics help scholars analyze voter behavior and institutional trust over time.
Charlie Stadtlander, spokesperson for The New York Times, said polling rigor “has no bearing on whether results are favorable or unfavorable to the president.”
Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark and a Republican strategist, said presidential approval ratings remain “a shorthand for political accountability.”
Gallup said it will continue issue-based and global research, including economic confidence and institutional trust surveys, signaling a broader focus beyond individual political figures.
The end of the Gallup presidential approval rating closes a statistical chapter that documented shifts in public opinion across generations, reshaping how presidential performance may be measured in the years ahead.
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