After Nearly 90 Years, Gallup Retires Its Presidential Approval Tracker

The polling firm says it will redirect resources toward broader long-term research initiatives.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

Gallup announced Wednesday that it will discontinue its long-running presidential job approval and political favorability polling, bringing to a close a measurement it has maintained since the late 1930s.

In a statement confirmed to The Hill, a company spokesperson said Gallup will stop publishing approval and favorability ratings for individual political figures. The decision, the spokesperson said, reflects “an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

The move ends one of the most recognizable metrics in American political life. Gallup began systematically tracking presidential approval in 1938, when founder George Gallup first asked Americans whether they approved of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s job performance. Over the decades, the firm’s approval ratings became a widely cited benchmark for measuring public satisfaction with sitting presidents.

News organizations, academics and political strategists frequently relied on the data to compare presidents across administrations and eras. The consistent methodology allowed for long-term historical analysis, with approval ratings often serving as indicators of political momentum, electoral prospects and broader public sentiment.

President Donald Trump’s second-term standing in Gallup’s surveys fluctuated over the past year. In a Jan. 21–27, 2025 survey, Gallup reported Trump’s second-term inaugural approval at 47 percent. By late November 2025, Gallup said his approval had declined to 36 percent, with disapproval rising to 60 percent. The company’s most recent presidential approval poll, conducted in early December 2025, showed approval at 36 percent and disapproval at 59 percent.

Gallup indicated that discontinuing the approval series will allow it to emphasize other research priorities. The spokesperson said the organization remains committed to “long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” and noted that work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll, and other domestic and international research initiatives.

For generations, Gallup’s approval ratings functioned as a recurring measure of presidential performance and public mood. With the company’s decision to end that series, one of the longest-running gauges of executive popularity in the United States will no longer be part of the public polling landscape.