As December begins and 2025 nears an end, voters appear to be a lot happier with President Donald Trump than in recent months, with both his “favorability” and “approval” ratings climbing. Trump’s actions to promote peace abroad, build a stronger economy, and end the flow of illicit drugs across the U.S. border have struck a chord with average Americans.
As it does each month, the I&I/TIPP Poll leads off asking voters the following question about presidential leadership: “Overall, is your opinion of Donald Trump generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
This month’s online national poll was taken from Nov. 25 to Nov. 29 by 1,483 adults. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.
The answers show solid month-to-month improvement from early fall, when Trump’s leadership ratings sagged a bit.
Among all respondents, 44% gave Trump a favorable rating, while 47% gave him an unfavorable rating, for a net -3% rating. Another 6% said they weren’t familiar enough to say, and 3% weren’t sure.
That’s a big shift from a month earlier, when just 41% gave Trump favorable marks, while 49% gave him unfavorable marks, for a net of -8%.
Trump made small gains among all political parties. For December, independent voters gave the president a 34% favorability, up from 31% a month earlier, while unfavorable scores fell from 56% to 55%.
Democratic voters, likewise, improved from 14% favorable in November to 15% in December, while unfavorable dipped from 79% in November to 78% this month.
But the biggest gains came among Republicans, with favorability jumping from 76% in November to 81% in December, while unfavorable ratings fell over the month from 14% to 12%. That’s a net rating of 69% positive in December, a 7-point gain from 62% in November, a significant swing.
Next comes the second question asked each month: “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
Once again, the improvement was noteworthy. Among all who took the December poll, 43% said they approved, versus 47% who disapproved. That compares to 40% approve to 51% disapprove a month earlier.
That’s a swing from a net -11% disapproval in November to just -4% in December, 7 points in total.
Trump’s approval climbed among all voting blocs: Independents (34% approval in December, versus 28% in November), Democrats (15% in December, 13% approval in November), and Republicans (78% in December, versus 75% in November).
The net gain in overall approval also showed in shrinking disapproval numbers: Democrats (82% in November, 78% in December), independents (59% in November, 55% in December) and Republicans (16% in November, 13% in December).
Trump also continues to score either “A” (excellent) or “B” (good) for his most widely followed specific policies.
In particular, voters give Trump 45% As and Bs for his immigration policies, while giving him 39% top grades for “handling violence and crime in the country” and for “restoring America’s core values,” and 37% for “handling the economy,” “handling energy policy,” and “handling of trade and tariffs.”
His worst scores come with “handling of North Korea” and “handling of health care,” both at (33%), and “handling of Russia” (34%).
Taken as a whole, U.S. voters give Trump 39% A and B grades for his overall performance as president, a more than passing number.
Overall, it was a bounce back for Trump. Not surprisingly, Democrats were parsimonious in their grading, with just 14% giving A and B grades for Trump policies, while independents (29%) and especially Republicans (73%) were far more generous in grading Trump.
As a result, more Americans see Trump as a strong leader as December begins than in November. Among all respondents, 42% called Trump either a “very strong leader” (24%) or a “strong” leader (18%), while 39% called him either “very weak” (28%) or “weak” (11%).
In November, only 40% called Trump strong. So Trump went from a -1% strength rating in November to +3% in December — a 4-point swing.
(Below: The TIPP Presidential Leadership Index measures public sentiment over time by combining three components: favorability, job approval, and presidential leadership. The index ranges from 0 to 100, with readings above 50 indicating optimism and below 50 signaling pessimism. In December, the overall index stood at 48.4 (Nov=45.9, Oct=48.8, Sep=48.5), with Republicans most optimistic at 84.8 (Nov=81.7, Oct=84.0, Sep= 83.0), Democrats least at 18.7 (Nov=17.1, Oct=18.7, Sep= 18.5), and independents in between at 39.3 (Nov=36.1, Oct=39.4, Sep=38.8).
Why the change?
For one thing, Trump is doing things the nation mostly wants him to do, such as interdicting illicit, deadly drugs before they enter the U.S. For another, for the first time in years, Trump has been enforcing America’s immigration laws, which were largely ignored during President Joe Biden’s four years.
Both of those actions are highly popular. Our own I&I/TIPP Poll, for instance, showed 60% support for Trump’s attacks on narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean. And he has long had strong backing for stricter immigration curbs, especially deportation for criminal non-citizens.
Worries during the summer about soaring prices due to tariffs haven’t emerged, as Trump eased tariffs on many key items in the run-up to the Christmas season.
Indeed, so far, tariffs haven’t shown up much in retail prices. Quoting “economic data from government agencies and reports,” The Hill recently concluded: “So far, Trump’s tariffs are not driving inflation. In fact, some goods that are affected by tariffs have actually become more affordable.”
Trump’s strenuous efforts to bring peace to various parts of the world have also been met with solid acceptance among Americans. Trump was portrayed in recent years as a head-in-the-sand America Firster who didn’t care at all about other countries, even our allies.
But as respected foreign policy analyst Walter Russell Mead recently noted in the Wall Street Journal: “Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt has an American president been this powerful or this busy. In his hyperactive second term, Mr. Trump doesn’t merely walk and chew gum at the same time. He dances on tightropes while juggling chainsaws.”
The “juggling chainsaws” includes working nonstop on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, forging a new relationship with a hostile China, ending the massacre of Christians in Africa, and putting narco-states Venezuela and Colombia on notice: America will not tolerate cartels’ unimpeded shipments of deadly drugs into the U.S.
This is a long way from Biden’s chaotic closing days in office a mere 11 months ago, when 51% of Americans gave Biden failing grades for leadership, including 59% of independents.
Trump continues to do well with independents, yet it’s likely that, regardless of what Trump does in the coming months, a majority of Democrats are unlikely to support him. But as this month’s I&I/TIPP Poll shows, Trump’s favorability remains solid among Republicans and independents, who now make up a de facto centrist third party.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights.
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