--- title: Rasmussen Poll: Donald Trump's Approval Rating Hits High description: President Donald Trump's approval rating hit 49%, the highest it's been in almost a year, according to a new Rasmussen poll. canonical: https://time.com/5132016/donald-trump-approval-rating-rasmussen/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-03T15:58:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T22:21:17.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Approval Rating Is the Highest It's Been in a Year og:description: According to a new poll og:url: https://time.com/5132016/donald-trump-approval-rating-rasmussen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6220f1ce0c18a280/6988fa7ebc6cfcd1d93e4df5/donald-trump-sotu.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4848 og:image:height: 2727 og:image:alt: President Trump Delivers His First State Of The Union Address og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Approval Rating Is the Highest It's Been in a Year twitter:description: According to a new poll twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6220f1ce0c18a280/6988fa7ebc6cfcd1d93e4df5/donald-trump-sotu.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's Approval Rating Is the Highest It's Been in Nearly a Year, Poll Finds > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Here Are the Promises President Trump Kept and Broke in His First Year [Watch (HLS stream): Here Are the Promises President Trump Kept and Broke in His First Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aVz1krc8.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2018-01-20. Donald Trump was elected president after a campaign of bold promises. Voters responded to his sweeping assurances on everything from health care to immigration and his overall pledge to Make America Great Again._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:21 PM UTCPublished: Feb 3, 2018 3:58 PM UTC  President Donald Trump smiles while delivering the State of the Union address. President Donald Trump smiles while delivering the State of the Union address. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:21 PM UTCPublished: Feb 3, 2018 3:58 PM UTC A new poll says President Donald Trump’s approval rating is the highest it’s been in nearly a year — a fact the President promptly took to Twitter to reiterate. [Rasmussen Reports’ daily Presidential Tracking Poll](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public%5Fcontent/politics/political%5Fupdates/prez%5Ftrack%5Ffeb02) for Friday listed Trump’s approval rating at 49% among likely U.S. voters, the highest approval rating Trump has earned since March 7, 2017\. Another 49% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s performance, according to Rasmussen. “Rasmussen just announced that my approval rating jumped to 49%, a far better number than I had in winning the Election, and higher than certain ‘sacred cows,'” Trump tweeted in response. “Other Trump polls are way up also. So why does the media refuse to write this? Oh well, someday!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/959798726381457409) Trump’s [approval rating during his first year in office stayed between 35% and 45%](http://time.com/5103776/donald-trump-approval-rating-graph/), the worst of the seven most recent presidents, according to Gallup. Nonetheless, a late 2017 Gallup poll found that [Trump is the second-most admired man in the U.S.](http://time.com/5080498/admiration-poll-donald-trump/), after only his predecessor, Barack Obama. An NBC/Wall Street _Journal_ poll from around the same time, however, [found that only 36% of registered voters would support Trump for reelection in 2020](http://time.com/5073531/donald-trump-2020-reelection-poll/). In the latest Rasmussen poll, which dropped just a few days after [Trump’s first State of the Union address](http://time.com/5125174/trump-state-of-the-union-address-transcript/), 35% of respondents said they “strongly approve” of Trump’s performance, versus 38% who “strongly disapprove.” ## Transcript Donald Trump's first year in the Oval Office was a whirlwind. But now that the dust has settled, it's becoming more clear what mattered. As a political novice with a hot Twitter finger, Trump created a steady stream of controversies Occasionally derailing his political agenda. But he also had some wins. The achievement that will likely last the longest is the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who filled a seat held open by Senate Republicans throughout 2016. On the legislative front, his biggest achievement was the passage of a $ 1. 5 trillion tax cut that reduced corporate rates, Lowered tax rates for the wealthy and doubled the standard deduction used by many taxpayers. When you think you haven't heard this expression, but we are making America great again. You haven't heard that, have you? But Republicans in Congress failed repeatedly in their long- held goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act. On this vote, the yeas are 45, the nays are 55. The amendment is not agreed to. Agreed to. Settling at the end of the year for repealing the individual insurance mandate as part of the tax bill. When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed. On foregin policy, Trump's major achievements involved undoing the work of his predecessor President Obama. He withdrew from negotiations over the Trans- Pacific Partnership, a trade pact with Asia. Great thing for the American worker, what we just did. Just did. And left the Paris Climate Agreement, making the US the only country not to sign. So we're getting out, but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that's fair. And if we can, that's great. And if we can't, that's fine. He also recognized Jerusalm as the capitol of Israel. Real. A controversial move that could make it harder for the US to act as a broker in peace negotiations. This is nothing, more or less, than a recognition of reality. The Trump administration also made strides at undoing rules and regulations on everyithing from drilling in the Arctic to protecting transgender students to guaranteeing net neutrality. But Trump's reliance on executive orders and internal rule- making Making also leaves that part of his legacy vulnerable to reversal by the next Democratic president. 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