For decades, the Gallup polling organization has been the gold standard of measuring a president's approval ratings. However, that is all about to change after the group announced this week that it would no longer measure how the nation views the current president. Read on for more information about this decision.

Gallup Ends Its Iconic Presidential Approval Rating Report

Analytics firm Gallup will no longer track presidential approval ratings. The decision to drop this service happened after nearly 90 years of reporting on presidential ratings. The firm was founded by George Gallup in 1935, establishing itself as a leader in the polling industry.

George Gallup got his start as a statistician, eventually founding the American Institute of Public Opinion. He was the first to send pollsters across the U.S. to ask Americans if they approved or disapproved of how the president was carrying out his duties. The initial polls were conducted during the Great Depression era, a time when many Americans were unhappy with how the government was performing. The first presidential rating poll centered on the approval of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Since that time, journalists from all over the world have leaned on the research collected by Gallup to disseminate news about collective opinions to the public. The Washington, D.C.-based agency does more than just report on overall presidential ratings. The group also collects opinions about policy moves and other decisions made by those in the nation's capital.

The wording of the standard job approval question had not changed over the years. Going back to the presidency of Harry S. Truman, Gallup had always asked the basic question, "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling his job?" The simplicity of this question was highly effective, prompting other researchers to adopt the same wording in their polling.

The agency made the announcement on February 11. According to a Gallup spokesperson, the decision to stop publishing favorability ratings of political figures "reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership." The company sent out an email detailing that the change was made to "align all of Gallup's public work with its mission."

The email expanded on this thought, noting that the context around the measures of a president's popularity has changed over the years. The agency said that the ratings "no longer represent an area where Gallup can make its most distinctive contribution."

What is Next for Gallup?

Gallup is not going away entirely. Instead, the analytics firm said that it remains committed to long-term research on issues that shape the lives of Americans. The company confirmed that it will continue its work through the World Poll, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the Gallup Poll Social Series, and more.

Gallup did not elaborate on what other factors prompted company leaders to eliminate the presidential rating polling. This has arguably been the service that most people associate with the company. According to the firm, over 95% of the world is represented by the Gallup World Poll. In addition, over 4,000 organizations lean on Gallup's workplace performance platform.

Several public pollsters have reduced their polling in the political sphere in recent years. The pullback has been blamed on a number of factors, including rising expenses, difficulties reaching people by telephone, and overall changes in the ways that people communicate.

A number of historic and well-known public polling partners have also ended or changed over the last few years, signaling a major shift in the industry on all levels. This includes partnerships between CNN and Gallup, CBS News and the New York Times, and NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.

According to Gallup's final poll in December of 2025, 36% of Americans approved of how President Donald Trump had handled his duties, while 59% said that they disapproved. These ratings were some of the lowest that Gallup had seen for a president since it began polling in the 1930s. Trump's ratings peaked in February of 2025, coming in with an approval of 47%.

Going back one term, former President Joe Biden saw an average approval rating of 42% during his time in office from January 2021 to January 2025. Former President John Kennedy enjoyed some of the highest average ratings ever reported by Gallup. JFK earned an average rating of 71% between January 1961 and November 1963. Not far behind was former President Dwight Eisenhower, boasting an average approval rating of 61% between January 1953 and January 1961.

Despite Gallup leaving this part of the business behind, political experts believe that tangible ways to measure a president's popularity will still exist. The polling will simply be conducted in more modern ways, keeping up with an increasingly digital world.

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