LEE CARTER: Trump's approval ratings reveal what legacy media refuses to see
Tuesday, Jan. 20 marks one year since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. One year of executive orders, foreign policy shockwaves, immigration crackdowns, and a governing style that never once tried to soften its edges.
And for one year, the same headline has seemed to be everywhere: Trump is unpopular.
Approval in the low 40s. Disapproval in the mid-50s. The verdict, according to the polling-industrial complex, is clear.
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But one year in, it’s worth asking a more uncomfortable question: What if the polls aren’t telling us Trump is failing? What if they’re telling us he’s delivering — and the country is splitting in response?
Because Trump is not like other presidents. And that means we’re reading his first year through the wrong lens.
Most presidents spend their first year recalibrating. They discover the limits of power. They soften the rhetoric. They explain why campaign promises were harder than expected.
They govern in beige after campaigning in bold color. Trump never did that.
He governed exactly as he campaigned — and dared the country to react.
He promised to get tough on immigration. He did.
He promised to put America first, even if allies bristled. He did.
He promised decisive action over consensus. He delivered it.
You can disagree with the choices. Many do. But you cannot credibly argue that he misrepresented who he would be.
And that’s why his polling looks so strange—and so stable—one year in.
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According to national polling averages, Trump’s job approval sits around 41% to 42%, with disapproval in the mid-50s. Those numbers dominate headlines. But buried in the same data is the statistic that actually defines his first year: According to a Wall Street Journal poll this week, 92% of voters who supported Trump in 2024 still approve of the job he’s doing.
That is not drift.
That is not erosion.
That is alignment.
Trump didn’t lose America; he kept his people.
Here’s the shift that explains everything: The polls absolutely reflect what Trump is doing. They just don’t reflect it the way they used to.
In past presidencies, performance led to persuasion. A good economy moved numbers up. A crisis moved them down. Voters behaved like jurors, weighing evidence and revising judgment.
Today, voters behave more like mirrors.
Trump acts. And people don’t reconsider. They react as who they already are.
Supporters see delivery.
Opponents see confirmation.
The same action produces opposite conclusions — and the polls record the split.
Think of today’s polling like polarized sunglasses. Everyone sees the same reality — but one lens turns it red, the other blue. The event isn’t hidden. It’s filtered. Trump’s presidency doesn’t change minds; it clarifies them.
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That’s why approval doesn’t swing wildly. That’s why scandals don’t collapse support. That’s why victories don’t expand it. The country isn’t being persuaded. It’s being sorted — in response to Trump doing exactly what he said he would do.
This is why Trump’s approval ratings feel so unsatisfying to everyone.
Critics want them to signal collapse.
Supporters want them to signal dominance.
Instead, they signal something more unsettling: stability without consensus.
Recent polling suggests Trump’s approval has stabilized after early dips — not because nothing is happening, but because everything is settling into place. The sides are formed. The reactions are predictable. The country has chosen its lenses.
Trump isn’t chasing approval. He’s holding his line.
And that, one year in, is the defining feature of his presidency.
Here is the thing that makes both sides uncomfortable:
Trump didn’t run as a unifier and then divide.
He didn’t run as a reformer and then manage.
He didn’t run as an outsider and then assimilate.
He ran as a disruptor — and governed as one.
That doesn’t make him right.
It doesn’t make him wrong.
It makes him consistent.
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And consistency, in a country this divided, is no longer a virtue everyone can tolerate. It’s a provocation.
One year in, Trump’s approval ratings aren’t a warning sign. They’re a receipt. They show that he delivered exactly what he promised — and that half the country can’t stand what was delivered.
In an era built on walk-backs and reversals, Trump did something voters are told never to expect from politicians: He meant it.
And on the one-year anniversary of his presidency, the polls aren’t judging his performance.
They’re measuring America’s discomfort with getting exactly what it voted for.