Gallup has been a pioneer of presidential approval surveys since the 1930s, now pivoting its focus amid growing threats from President Donald Trump toward pollsters who publish unfavorable findings
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NEED TO KNOW
- Gallup has ended its decades-long tradition of tracking presidential approval ratings
- Gallup, which was originally called the American Institute of Public Opinion, has been a leading source for gauging U.S. presidents’ popularity since the 1930s
- The company’s decision comes amid growing threats by the Trump administration to target pollsters with unfavorable findings, though Gallup has not attributed its pivot to President Donald Trump
Gallup is no longer tracking presidential approval ratings after nearly 90 years of leading the way with data.
The company stopped publishing approval and favorability ratings of political figures earlier this year, Gallup confirmed to PEOPLE in a statement, saying it “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”
“This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission," a spokesperson for the agency said. "We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science.”
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Dr. George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1935, per the polling agency’s website. It would later be renamed after its founder.
To uphold objectivity, Gallup refused to take polling that was sponsored by “special-interest groups such as the Republican and Democratic parties."
The first breakthrough for Gallup came in 1936 after its polls correctly predicted that Franklin D. Roosevelt would beat Alfred Landon in the U.S. presidential race, contradicting the most popular pollster at the time, The Literary Digest.
Beginning in 1938, Gallup unveiled its ground-breaking presidential approval rating, which became a baseline for measuring the American public's opinion of a president's performance.
The major pivot for Gallup comes after months of threats from President Donald Trump toward pollsters who have published unfavorable favorability ratings. Most recently, in January, the president said he would expand his existing defamation lawsuit against The New York Times after the paper released an updated poll that showed his approval fall to 40%.
Gallup reported on the decline in Trump's approval rating throughout 2025, showing him drop from 47% approval at the time of his inauguration to 36% in the final update from December.
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Explaining what's next for Gallup in a statement, a company spokesperson told PEOPLE, "Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives. 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."
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