Gallup is discontinuing its long-standing approval question regarding presidential performance, which has served as a key political indicator in the U.S. for nearly a century.
For almost a century, a simple question served as a political barometer in Washington: 'Do you approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling his duties?' From Franklin Roosevelt to Donald Trump, answers to this query were a consistent measure of political strength in the United States. However, Gallup has now decided to remove this question from its regular surveys, marking the end of a historical metric that has influenced both academic analysis and public perception of presidential performance.
Gallup posed the same, or nearly identical, question for a continuous 88 years, allowing academics, political analysts, and markets to compare presidents across different decades, during wars, times of economic prosperity, or crisis. The significance of this question was such that the approval rating was often considered nearly equivalent to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the political realm, serving as a key indicator and point of reference, even as various alternatives emerged to gauge political sentiment.
Today, dozens of polling firms offer a variety of methodologies to measure public opinion, yet the discontinuation of this particular question indicates a shift in how such data may be interpreted going forward. The relevance and reliability of approval ratings are being reassessed, prompting potential implications for future political analysis and election forecasting in an increasingly complex landscape.
