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By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
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The beginning of President Donald Trump's second term has seen his net approval rating reach a historic high, according to Rasmussen Reports, with the latest Presidential Tracking Poll showing a net approval of +14. This marks a significant milestone for Trump, breaking previous records set during his first term.
The poll, conducted by the conservative-leaning polling company over a two-day average from approximately 829 U.S. likely voters, showed that 54 percent of respondents approve of Trump's job performance, while 40 percent disapprove.
A three-day rolling average of this data is set to be released on January 23, with a five-day rolling average following on January 27, which Rasmussen frequently employs to enhance accuracy through larger sample sizes. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters is +/- 2.5 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
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Newsweek has contacted Rasmussen and the White House for comment via email.
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Why It Matters
The polling comes after Trump returned to the Oval Office after winning the popular vote in an election for the first time. Trump's increased popularity compared to eight years ago, coupled with Republicans controlling both chambers of congress, could allow him to push his agenda with less difficulty than in his first term
The president's plans, following a slew of declarations and executive orders on his first day in office, includes mass deportations, rolling back DEI policies and environmental protections, and raising tariffs on countries such as China, Mexico and Canada.
What To Know
The latest numbers represent a remarkable achievement for Trump, eclipsing his previous net approval high of +10, which was recorded twice in 2017: from January 24-26 and February 14-16. During those periods, Trump garnered 55 percent approval, but his disapproval rating also stood at 45 percent, resulting in a smaller net gain compared to the current figures.
According to Rasmussen's polling, 49 percent of Black voters approve of Trump, while 72 percent of Hispanic voters approve. Some 57 percent of women also approve, and 48 percent of independent voters.
Trump's aggregated approval rating during his first term peaked at 45.8 percent, according to polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight.
However, at that time, 50 percent of voters disapproved of him, FiveThirtyEight's tracker shows. FiveThirtyEight, which previously gave Rasmussen a low C+ rating as a pollster, excluded them from polling trackers starting in March 2024.
This surge follows Trump's inauguration for a second term as president, now backed by a strong voter mandate and Republican control of both the House and Senate. Trump made huge gains among historically Democrat supporting demographics in the 2024 election, including Black and Hispanic voters. For example, one exit poll from Wisconsin published by NBC showed Trump has improved his vote share among Black voters by 13 percent since 2020.
Polls also showed that he improved on his overall vote share in all but two of the states since 2020. Trump's popularity was also apparent in the congressional elections this year. Of the 17 GOP members of Congress who previously voted to impeach Trump, only five remain.
However, despite his strong support, Trump still faces some barriers to getting his agenda through Congress.
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Some of his executive orders are already facing legal challenges, including one that ends birthright citizenship for children who are born while in the United States to foreign national parents who are not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S, as well as another that effectively reinstates "Schedule F," a policy created under Trump's first administration, which altered civil service rules to enable the firing of a wide range of career federal workers by removing their civil service protections, reclassifying their positions as political appointments.
Meanwhile, Trump is also facing a narrow Republican majority in the House, meaning the Democrats could possibly derail his plans.
What Happens Next
While Trump ticked off many of his campaign promises on his first day in office, he still has to get them through Congress if he wishes for his agenda to become permanent. But Republicans have yet to find agreement on how to move his ambitious plans through Congress.
Trump is expected to meet today with a group of centrist House Republicans, according to a Semafor report.
Update 01/22/2025 10:33 a.m. ET: This article was updated with revised figures from Rasmussen.
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