The latest update on Donald Trump's presidential approval ratings shows a slight improvement from an all-time low of -20.6 to -19.5. As of August 28, 2026, this net disapproval rating is still far from popular, and it's comparable to the same point in Joe Biden's presidency when his rating was at -11.6. The article comes from Silver Bulletin, a news source that tracks presidential approval ratings through its website. The outlet uses a weighted average of polls to provide an accurate picture of Trump's popularity, which is still largely negative despite some recent fluctuations.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-31,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Donald Trump's net approval rating has risen slightly from an all-time low of -20.6, but he still remains unpopular with a current net approval of -19.5. This is a significant improvement from the same point in his presidency, when he was at -11.6. Despite this increase, Trump's approval rating is far from positive. For comparison, Joe Biden had a similar net approval rating of -11.6 at the same stage in his presidency.
Written for “Donald Trump's Popularity Polls” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 2024 · logged 2026-08-31
Commentary. The three signals behind a trust
score all measure a newsroom's record with its own reporting, so they
are not computed for this source.
How trust is scored.
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful
reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.
🕒 The latest on Trump’s approval rating
Updated August 28, 2026
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latest → update → rating
In other Silver Bulletin news, we launched our 2026 midterm election forecast this month.
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we → launch → forecast
We’ll regularly update the charts below as new polls about Donald Trump’s approval rating come in.1
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polls → update → rating
This page is designed to be viewed on the web rather than in our email client or in the Substack app.
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page → design → app
Click here for more information on how the average works.
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average → click → information
The Silver Bulletin average weights more reliable polls heavily — you can find our latest pollster ratings here.
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you → weight → ratings
Our default average reflects a combination of all polls, whether conducted among adults, registered voters or likely voters.
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average → reflect → adults
If a pollster releases multiple versions of the same survey, we use the all-adult version of the poll before the registered voter version.2
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we → release → poll
This is because all Americans have a say in how popular the president is — whether or not they vote.
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they → have → say
The polls: What do the surveys say?
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surveys → say → What
Each poll gets an “influence” score based on its pollster rating, its sample size, its recency, and how often a pollster is publishing numbers.3
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pollster → get → rating
Sometimes, surveys with mediocre pollster ratings have more weight in the model just because they were conducted very recently or polled more people.
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they → have → people
Inevitably, there’s a lot of disagreement from survey to survey, not just because of statistical variation but because pollsters have long had trouble pegging down Trump’s popularity.
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pollsters → ’ → popularity
By clicking on the “adjusted results” tab, you can see how the “house effects” adjustment that corrects for these predictable differences works in our model.
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that → click → model
You can also click here to download every Trump approval poll in our database — including some additional details not shown in the chart below.
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You → click → chart
The issues: What do Americans think of Trump’s policies?
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Americans → think → policies
Pollsters don’t just ask about Trump’s overall job approval, they also ask about how well he’s dealing with different issues.
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he → ask → issues
We’re tracking how the public feels about Trump’s handling of four topics: the economy, immigration, trade and tariffs, and the cost of living.
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public → track → living
The deep dive
We also have a few features we’re reserving for paying subscribers:
How do Trump’s approval ratings compare to every past president since Truman?
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ratings → have → Truman
How many voters strongly approve or disapprove of Trump?
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voters → approve → Trump
What are Trump’s numbers in only polls of adults or only polls of likely and registered voters?
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numbers → register → voters
You can find all of that, plus downloadable data on every president’s approval rating every day since 1945, down below.
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You → find → 1945
