Fact check: What were the average approval ratings for the last 3 presidents during their entire terms?

Executive Summary: The documents provided do not supply the requested average approval ratings for the last three U.S. presidents over their entire terms; instead they concentrate on mid‑2025 snapshots of President Donald Trump’s approval and partisan divides. The available analyses consistently report Mr. Trump’s approval near 40% in late summer 2025 and a negative net approval around -8.4, but they lack any compiled, term‑long averages for the last three presidents ^{[1] [2]}.

1. What the sources actually claim — Trump’s 2025 standing and big partisan gaps

All three source groups emphasize recent measures of President Trump’s popularity rather than multi‑term averages, reporting an approval level clustered around 40% in August–September 2025 and highlighting an unprecedented partisan split in Gallup trend data (93% Republican vs. 1% Democratic approval in one poll) that produces a roughly 92‑point gap ^[1]. The Silver Bulletin aggregation cited places Trump’s net approval at -8.4 as of October 14, 2025, and notes changes relative to his prior terms but does not attempt to calculate average approval across full presidencies ^{[2] [1]}.

2. What’s missing from the package — no full‑term averages for “last three presidents”

None of the supplied analyses answer the core question: the average approval rating across the entire terms of the last three presidents. The materials focus on short‑term polling, trend charts, and momentary net approvals without providing arithmetic means or weighted averages spanning each president’s full time in office. This absence means the documents cannot support direct comparisons across presidencies, leaving the user without the central statistic requested and requiring additional, longitudinal data sources or aggregation methods to compute the term averages ^{[3] [2]}.

3. Consistent points across sources — how the data they do give align

Despite not answering the original question, the pieces are consistent in two facts: contemporary approval ballpark and partisan polarization. Multiple items repeat a ~40% approval figure for Trump in late summer 2025, and at least one Gallup result emphasizes an unusually wide Republican‑Democratic approval gap ^[1]. The Silver Bulletin’s net approval measure of -8.4 complements these snapshots by translating approval/disapproval into a single metric, but none of these metrics equate to or substitute for a full‑term average for any president ^[2].

4. Why full‑term averages matter and how they differ from snapshots

A short‑term approval number captures current sentiment, while a full‑term average summarizes how approval fluctuated across all months of a presidency. Snapshots can be skewed by crises, policy wins, or temporary events; averages require consistent polling or aggregation over every month or quarter of each term. The provided material shows snapshots and trend charts useful for short‑run analysis, but because they do not disclose the underlying time series or compute across a president’s full term, they cannot reliably be used to produce the requested comparative averages ^{[3] [1]}.

5. How analysts normally compute term averages and what’s absent here

Computing a president’s term average requires either raw poll time‑series data or a reputable aggregator that has already calculated a mean or weighted mean across the entire term. The supplied items reference poll trackers and aggregated net approval metrics, but they do not present a documented methodology or the full time series needed to compute an arithmetic or weighted average across a full term for the last three presidents. That methodological gap is decisive: without explicit aggregation steps or complete monthly figures, any derived “term average” would be unsupported by these sources ^{[2] [3]}.

6. Conflicting emphases and potential agendas in the supplied analyses

The pieces diverge mainly in tone and emphasis: some focus on trend charts and visual tracking of Trump’s second‑term popularity, while others highlight partisan polarization and net approval figures ^{[3] [1]}. These differences may reflect editorial choices about what story to tell—momentary performance versus structural polarization—rather than factual contradiction. The absence of cross‑presidential averages suggests those outlets prioritized current polling narratives over historical aggregation, an editorial agenda that matters for the user’s request ^{[4] [2]}.

7. Bottom line and next steps you can ask for right now

Bottom line: the provided materials do not answer the original question; they document President Trump’s late‑2025 approval (~40%, net -8.4) and partisan splits but offer no full‑term averages for the last three presidents. If you want, I can compute those averages: authorize me to gather longitudinal approval series from major poll aggregators and official trackers, specify whether you want simple or weighted means, and I will produce the comparative term‑average figures with sources and methodology.