Gallup will stop tracking presidential approval ratings

During the second term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gallup polled American to get a sense of how he was doing. That launched a tradition of presidential approval ratings that spanned almost 90 years. Now it's coming to an end.

Gallup has announced it will no longer publish its monthly approval and favorability ratings of individual politicians as part of "an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

Gallup's poll has been a gold standard for presidential approval polls for 88 years and is regularly cited by media outlets. Its most recent poll, focusing on President Donald Trump, saw his approval ratings fall from 47% last February to 37% in December.

Gallup indicated to The Hill that the decision to do away with the presidential approval poll was not the result of pressure from the White House or the current administration, saying “this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.”

Gallup said it plans to continue methodological research on issues and conditions that impact people's lives through its poll series and other outlets. The decision to cease polls on individual politicians became effective this year.

The end of the Gallup poll won't mean the end of presidential approval ratings, however. Several other organizations, including Pew Research Center, the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, and most major news outlets conduct their own polls.

The decision to step back from presidential approval polling comes 11 years after Gallup discontinued its presidential election polling, which tracked which candidate was leading in the weeks leading up to an election.