Gallup Quits Tracking Presidential Approval Ratings After 88 Years

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Gallup has tracked presidential approval ratings for 88 years, since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office, but the pollster has decided that’s long enough.

According to a report by The Hill on Wednesday, Gallup said in a statement that it was moving away from measuring approval and favorability ratings for specific individual politicians, which “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

“Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” a Gallup spokesperson said. “That work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll, and our portfolio of U.S. and global research. This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission. We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science.”

The change comes amid an ongoing downward shift in President Donald Trump’s approval ratings, as he is losing ground nearly across the board — even with Republicans and even on issues that were viewed as strengths during his 2024 re-election campaign, like immigration.

“Trump’s Gallup approval rating as of last December was among the lowest the organization had found since it began taking the poll in the 1930s,” the Hill’s report noted — adding that their reporter had asked Gallup if it “had received any feedback from the White House or anyone in the current administration before making the decision,” and the pollster’s spokesperson replied, “this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.”

The news was met with shock and disdain by numerous reporters and political commentators, many of whom highlighted the value of Gallup’s long-term tracking and were highly skeptical of the claim that the White House — specifically a president who becomes notoriously furious about bad polls — had influenced the decision.

“It’s hard to believe this isn’t connected to Trump’s litigiousness, which is a threat to press freedom,” wrote FIRE Executive Vice President Nico Perrino, pointing out past occasions where Trump had sued a pollster or threatened to do so.

A sampling of additional reactions is below.

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