President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a second-term high, according to pollster Nate Silver.
Writing in his blog Silver Bulletin, Silver—a statistician and political analyst—said Trump’s approval rating had plummeted to net -15 percentage points with 40.5 percent approving of him and 55.5 percent disapproving.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email outside of normal business hours for comment.
Why It Matters
Tracking Trump’s approval rating is useful in taking the temperature of the nation and measuring the public response to the administration’s policies and decisions.
It will become evermore important when voters participate in the fast-approaching midterm elections. These ballots, held in key seats across the country, could change the balance of power in the U.S. While Trump is not on the ticket, the elections are seen as a way for voters to cast their judgment on the president.
Traditionally, the party that does not hold the White House tends to do better in midterm elections. In 2018, Republicans lost the House and the Democrats gained 41 seats. Republicans have slim majorities in both chambers of Congress and losing the House or Senate would affect the GOP’s ability to pass key legislation and advance its policies.
What To Know
Silver aggregated a series of polls to come up with his findings. He also found the proportion of Americans who approve of Trump’s job performance had also hit a second-term low of 40.5 percent.
He said that this meant Trump is less popular than Joe Biden was at a comparable point in his first term (-11.5 net approval) and less popular than the president himself was during his first term (-12 net approval.)
Silver previously put Trump’s net approval at negative 13.7 points on February 9, 2026.
It follows other negative polling regarding the president. Half of Americans rate Trump as a “poor” president, the greatest proportion who do for any of the 20 U.S. presidents rated in a recent YouGov survey, which asked respondents to rank previous presidents on a scale from “outstanding” to “poor.”
Meanwhile, an AP-NORC poll conducted February 5-8, 2026, using NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel, found Trump’s approval at 36 percent and disapproval at 62 percent, a net minus 26 that matched his November low with the same pollster.
It also comes amid a series of elections with concerning results for Trump’s Republican Party. On February 3, conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss lost out on Texas Senate District 9 to her Democratic rival Taylor Rehmet, a military veteran and union leader. Rehmet won by more than 14 percentage points, according to The Associated Press.
But Trump’s approval rating returned to the 50 percent mark in the latest InsiderAdvantage national survey, its highest level in weeks.
What People Are Saying
White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “President Trump was overwhelmingly elected by nearly 80 million Americans to deliver on his popular and common-sense agenda. The president has already made historic progress not only in America, but around the world. It is not surprising that President Trump remains the most dominant figure in American politics.”
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social last week: “The highest Poll Numbers I have ever received. Obviously, people like a strong and powerful Country, with the best economy, EVER!”
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