Congressional job approval among Americans shot up in the weeks since President Trump took office to the highest marks in nearly four years, according to a February Gallup survey, driven largely by Republican respondents.
The Feb. 16 survey found that 29 percent of Americans approved of the job Congress is doing while 65 percent disapproved. Republicans have slim majorities in both the House and the Senate.
That is a sharp increase from a Jan. 15 Gallup survey, when Congressional job approval was 17 percent and disapproval was 76 percent. And it marks the highest scores for Congress since May 2021, when Gallup found 31 percent approval and 63 percent disapproval for Congress.
The recent jump, which coincides with Trump taking office, is driven mostly by a 42-point surge in support from Republican respondents.
In February, Congressional job approval sat at 53 percent with Republicans, 26 percent with independents, and 5 percent with Democrats; in January those figures were 11 percent for Republicans, 17 percent for independents, and 23 percent for Democrats.
That approval of Congress among Republicans is at its highest point in nearly 20 years, since August 2005, according to other Gallup data shared with The Hill.
Trump’s job approval rating, meanwhile, is at 45 percent, a tick down from the 47 percent rating just after his inauguration in January.
Americans’ warming to Congress comes as Senate Republicans have confirmed many of Trump’s cabinet appointees, including controversial picks like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.
The House and Senate also swiftly sent the Laken Riley Act, a bill to mandate detention of migrants without legal status if they are accused of crimes like theft, to Trump’s desk. It was the first piece of legislation that Trump signed into law.
Congressional Republicans have tough tasks in the year ahead, including advancing Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda, funding the government before a Mar. 14 shutdown deadline, and raising the nation’s borrowing limit by the summer.
“History has shown that partisans’ approval tends to fade somewhat after an initial honeymoon period,” a Gallup analysis said.
An uptick in Congressional approval driven by partisan respondents when one party holds control of the House, Senate, and White House aligns with historical trends.
Democrats similarly reported high approval of Congress when they held trifecta control of government from 2021 to 2023. Republicans also had higher Congressional approval ratings when Republicans held unified control of government from 2017 to 2019.
