As President Donald Trump rips through his fourth week back in power, major public approval polls continue to deliver good news.
The latest is from the standard-bearer, Gallup, in a survey of how people view the five living presidents: Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
While Trump rates as the fourth most liked living president, even Gallup had to give him kudos for his 48% favorable rating.
The polling outfit, which has been stingy with any praise for the Republican, said in its analysis today that Trump’s ratings “are among his best since Gallup first measured opinions of him in 1999. Trump has had only one net-positive rating to date — 50% favorable and 38% unfavorable — in 2005, when he was featured in the reality television show “The Apprentice” and before he entered Republican politics.”
And at 48% favorable, Trump is actually tied with Clinton for third, though apparently because his disapprovals were higher than Clinton’s — 50% to 41% — Gallup knocked him down a peg on its list.
Other polls have given slightly higher approval numbers and significantly higher ratings for his actions so far as president. One from John Zogby Strategies even said that Obama’s “coalition” was swinging behind Trump.
In the survey, Obama continues to break the historical trend by maintaining his status as the most popular, with a 59% favorable rating. Bush is second at 52%.
Biden is last, not surprisingly, since he didn’t even have his own party’s support to run for reelection. Instead, they put Vice President Kamala Harris up to challenge Trump last year even though many Democrats had shrugged her off as a poor candidate and even worse vice president.
Biden came in with a dismal 39% favorable and 57% unfavorable rating.
“Opinions of Biden — now 39% favorable and 57% unfavorable — are barely better than his worst evaluation since he became a well-known political figure. In June 2024, the favorable/unfavorable split for Biden was 37%/61%, given concerns about his issue positions and his age as polls showed him trailing Trump in a rematch of the 2020 election. Concerns about his age only intensified in the days after a poor performance in the first presidential debate with Trump on June 27,” said the analysis.
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Still, Gallup has hope for the unpopular former president, citing history as the Democrat’s best friend.
“If the typical historical pattern holds, Trump’s favorability rating could be expected to drop over the next four years, while Biden’s may improve,” said Gallup.