--- title: Donald Trump's Approval Rating Hits Historic Low description: An new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows just 39% of Americans approve of President Trump canonical: https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-19T16:14:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:56:16.819Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Is Ending His First Year as the Most Unpopular President in Modern History og:description: An new poll shows just 39% of Americans approve of President Trump og:url: https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda91e081853ce1cc/6988f8c1ab6d7708216b168e/donald-trump-approval-rating-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Meets With Defense Secretary Mattis And Senior Military Leaders At The Pentagon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Is Ending His First Year as the Most Unpopular President in Modern History twitter:description: An new poll shows just 39% of Americans approve of President Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda91e081853ce1cc/6988f8c1ab6d7708216b168e/donald-trump-approval-rating-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Is Ending His First Year as the Most Unpopular President in Modern History by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 19, 2018 4:14 PM CUT  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving for a meeting at the Pentagon, on January 18, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving for a meeting at the Pentagon, on January 18, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jan 19, 2018 4:14 PM CUT President Trump will end his first year in office more unpopular than any president in modern history, according to a poll released Friday. A new NBC News/_Wall Street Journal_ poll finds that just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, the lowest figure the poll has found for a modern president completing one year in office, according to [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/poll-more-half-americans-strongly-disapprove-trump-n838926 "undefined"). Trump’s [overall approval rating](http://time.com/5055847/donald-trump-approval-rating-2/ "undefined") is lower than past presidents at the same point in their positions, including George W. Bush, who ranked 82%, Bill Clinton at 60% and Barack Obama, who was at a 50% approval rating one year in. Trump’s approval ratings have maintained a [steady low](http://time.com/5103776/donald-trump-approval-rating-graph/ "undefined") across different polls during his first year in office. Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the NBC/WSJ poll said they disapprove of Trump, including 51% who said they “strongly disapprove.” According to the poll, 46% of men approve of Trump while just 33% of women responded the same. The poll, which surveyed 900 adults, has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Is Ending His First Year as the Most Unpopular President in Modern History","datePublished":"2018-01-19T16:14:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:56:16.819Z","description":"Just 39% of Americans approve","url":"https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/","keywords":["Polls","White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda91e081853ce1cc/6988f8c1ab6d7708216b168e/donald-trump-approval-rating-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda91e081853ce1cc/6988f8c1ab6d7708216b168e/donald-trump-approval-rating-poll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Meets With Defense Secretary Mattis And Senior Military Leaders At The Pentagon","caption":"President Trump Meets With Defense Secretary Mattis And Senior Military Leaders At The Pentagon","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/polls/","name":"Polls"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5109669/president-trumps-approval-rating-low/","name":"Donald Trump Is Ending His First Year as the Most Unpopular President in Modern History"}}]}] ```