Trump Has Broken George W. Bush and Obama’s 2nd Term Approval Numbers, Despite 95 Percent of the Media Trashing Him Daily
When 95 percent of the media trashes you daily, it’s pretty miraculous if 95 percent of the people don’t reflexively hate you.
Instead, for President Donald Trump, he actually has the highest approval rating at this time of the second term of any president in the 21st century.
As Fox News noted on Thursday, Trump’s RealClearPolitics polling average for March 5 in the second year of a second term was actually above that of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Trump is at 43.3 percent approval, vs. 42.5 for Obama and 36.7 for Bush.
Watch: The latest polling shows Trump is beating George W. Bush and Barack Obama's job approval numbers at the same points in their second terms.pic.twitter.com/1BzwbP59x0
— The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) March 6, 2026
And, perhaps most importantly, Trump began his second term behind Obama and roughly equivalent with Bush as of his second inauguration.
Now, it’s worth noting that Bush had significant headwinds at this point in his presidency, both with Iraq turning into a quagmire on him and his failure to privatize Social Security on the home front.
However, Bush fell from a much higher apex. Arguably, he was the last president to enjoy sustained bipartisan support in the years immediately following 9/11 and the Afghanistan invasion, and there was still the residual belief in 2006 that he was the last line of defense keeping us from another Al-Qaida attack.