Trump’s approval rating stays positive despite consistent negative media coverage, illustrating the media’s weakening credibility

Nearly 6 weeks into his second term, Donald Trump still maintains a positive Presidential approval rating. This puts Donald Trump in a much better polling position than he was at this point in his first term.

This of course is with the backdrop of near constant negative coverage from the media. Whether it is putting a negative spin on Trump’s deportation efforts, DOGE, the administration’s fight against DEI, or how Trump deals with Ukraine, all media outside of those clearly labelled right leaning has near unanimous negative coverage of Trump.

This is nothing new for Trump over his decade in politics. In fact, in the 2024 election, the media’s coverage of Trump was 85% negative, and was 90% negative during the 2020 election.

While Trump does controversial things, the fact that he won the popular vote, yet consistently receives nearly 90% negative coverage illustrates a disconnect between the people who are supposedly reporting news and what the general public thinks.

That Mr Trump can maintain a positive approval rating in this environment indicates that the media’s grip on public opinion is weakening. In a country where the media is so slanted, that is a good thing.

We are still extremely early into Mr Trump’s term, and it is very possible that the President could dip into the negative approval territory sometime during his term, and stay there for a while. But no matter what, the public is becoming more aware of the media’s bias, and not letting themselves be fooled by it.