Notes: only numbers from the Gallup Organization are used because no other polling organization has measured presidential approval long enough to allow for such historical comparisons. Gallup began periodically asking this question since testing President Harry S Truman’s approval in June 1945.

In terms of party identification, in Gallup’s seven national survey measuring party this year: 30 percent identify as Democrats, 26 percent as Republican and 42 percent as independent. These figures are for all independents, including “Leaners” those who concede to leaning to one party or the other in a subsequent question. When independents who say they lean towards the Democratic Party are included in that party’s column, the Democratic share is 48.5 percent. When independents who say they lean towards the Republican Party are included in that party’s column, the Republican share is 41.1 percent. The remaining 10.4 percent are “pure independents.”