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Claim analyzed
“Donald Trump has the lowest approval ratings of any U.S. president in history.”
The Conclusion
Executive Summary
The claim is not supported. Reliable historical trackers (Gallup, Roper, American Presidency Project) do not show Trump as uniquely the lowest-rated president “in history.” At most, he's cited as having the lowest (or tied-lowest) ratings on specific modern benchmarks (e.g., first 100 days), while other presidents recorded lower single-point/final ratings.
Warnings
- The claim commits a scope error: “in history” is broader than “past 80 years” or “first 100 days,” and those narrower stats can't prove an all-time superlative.
- Approval “lowest” depends on the metric (single poll low, term average, career average, final rating); switching metrics changes who is 'lowest.'
- Some supporting citations are low-quality or non-independent (unknown publisher, YouTube), while the strongest archival sources contradict the absolute wording.
The Claim
How we interpreted the user input
Intent
User wants to verify whether Trump holds the record for lowest presidential approval ratings in U.S. history
Testable Claim
The user's input, neutralized and hardened into a testable hypothesis
“Donald Trump has the lowest approval ratings of any U.S. president in history.”
The Research
What we found online
Summary of Findings
All sources are listed in the Sources section at the end of this report.
The Debate
The for and against arguments
Multiple independent reports conclude Trump set the modern record for presidential unpopularity: ABC News' ABC/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found he had the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in the past 80 years (Source 5, ABC News), echoed by Good Morning America's coverage of the same poll (Source 8, ABC News) and another contemporaneous write-up repeating that “lowest … of any president in past 80 years” finding (Source 7). Given that “in history” claims in public discourse are typically operationalized using the longest consistent polling era (post-WWII), these sources jointly substantiate that Trump's approval is the lowest on record across presidents in that historical series, supporting the motion.
Your argument commits the fallacy of moving the goalposts by arbitrarily redefining "in history" to mean only "past 80 years" when Source 3 (The American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara) clearly documents Harry Truman's 32% approval rating from 1952, which predates your cherry-picked timeframe and remains lower than any Trump rating cited in your sources. You also ignore that your own Source 5 (ABC News) explicitly states Trump's average is only "tied with Biden for the lowest presidential career average," directly contradicting your claim that he holds the singular record for lowest approval ratings.
The claim is demonstrably false because Source 1 (Gallup) explicitly states that Joe Biden's 42.2% average approval rating is "the second lowest in Gallup records," which necessarily means another president holds the record for the lowest, and Source 3 (The American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara) shows Harry Truman had a final approval rating of just 32%, far lower than Trump's ratings. Multiple sources including Source 5 (ABC News) confirm that Trump's approval ratings are only "tied with Biden for the lowest presidential career average," proving he does not hold the singular record for lowest approval ratings in U.S. presidential history.
You're conflating different metrics and time windows: Source 1 (Gallup) discusses Gallup-term averages and says Biden is “second lowest,” while Source 5 (ABC News) documents a specific, comparable benchmark—lowest 100-day approval in the past 80 years—so your “demonstrably false” conclusion doesn't actually rebut the motion as operationalized in the polling era. And your Truman point is a category error: Source 3 (The American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara) reports a low final rating snapshot, not an overall “approval ratings” record across presidents, whereas Source 5 (ABC News) still supports Trump being at the bottom of the consistent modern series (even if his career average is tied).
Jump into a live chat with the Proponent and the Opponent. Challenge their reasoning, ask your own questions, and investigate this topic on your terms.
The Adjudication
How each panelist evaluated the evidence and arguments
The most reliable sources (Gallup, Roper Center, American Presidency Project - all 0.9 authority) clearly refute the claim: Source 1 states Biden has the "second lowest" average in Gallup records, Source 3 shows Truman hit 32% in 1952, and Source 5 confirms Trump is only "tied with Biden for the lowest presidential career average." While some sources support Trump having the lowest 100-day rating in 80 years, this narrow metric doesn't establish him as having the lowest approval ratings "in history" - the reliable evidence shows he's tied for lowest average and that Truman reached lower individual ratings.
The pro side infers “lowest in history” from evidence that Trump had the lowest 100-day approval in the past 80 years (Sources 5 ABC News; 8 GMA; 7 Unknown), but that only supports a narrower, time-bounded metric and cannot validly establish an all-history, overall-lowest claim; meanwhile the evidence pool itself indicates Trump's career average is merely tied for lowest (Source 5) and shows at least one lower presidential approval datapoint (Truman at 32% final rating in Source 3, American Presidency Project), so the claim does not follow. Verdict: FALSE because the supporting evidence is scope-mismatched and contradicted by other provided evidence indicating either a tie or lower historical values than Trump's.
The claim omits that “lowest approval ratings” depends on the metric (100-day, term average, lowest single poll, final rating) and timeframe, and the provided evidence shows Trump is only the lowest in a specific modern benchmark (lowest 100-day in the past 80 years per ABC News) while other presidents have lower single-point or comparable-record measures (e.g., Truman's 32% final rating in the American Presidency Project; Trump tied with Biden for lowest career average per ABC News; Gallup notes Biden's term average is second-lowest, implying someone else is lowest). With full context restored, the broad “in history” framing is false because Trump does not uniquely hold the lowest approval across all presidents and all standard approval metrics; at best he holds (or ties) certain modern-era records rather than the all-time, across-metrics superlative.
Adjudication Summary
All three axes converge on “false,” with the main disagreement only in degree (Source Auditor 3/10 vs. Logic/Context 2/10). High-quality reference sources (Gallup/Roper/APP) undercut the absolute, all-time framing: Trump is described as tied for lowest career average in some reporting, and historical records include lower approval points for other presidents (e.g., Truman). The pro-claim sources largely rely on narrower windows (100-day, past 80 years) and weaker provenance (unknown outlet/YouTube).
Consensus
Sources
Sources used in the analysis
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