[NewsMax] Gallup said Wednesday it will stop tracking and publishing presidential job approval and political figure favorability ratings this year, ending a public opinion yardstick it helped define for nearly nine decades.
A Gallup spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that the company will cease publishing individual politicians' favorability and approval ratings, adding that this decision "reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership."
Gallup is among the best-known names in U.S. polling, having pioneered systematic presidential job approval polling as a way to gauge public satisfaction with how presidents were performing their duties.
The agency's presidential approval series dates to 1938, when founder George Gallup began asking Americans whether they approved of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's job performance.
Over time, Gallup's approval ratings became one of the most widely cited benchmarks of presidential standing, used by news organizations, scholars and political strategists to compare incumbents across eras.
President Donald Trump's standing in Gallup's second-term polling has softened since early in his term.
In a Jan. 21-27, 2025, survey, Gallup reported Trump's initial second-term job approval at 47%. By late November 2025, Gallup said his approval had fallen to 36% while disapproval rose to 60%, a new second-term low in its monthly series.
The agency's most recent presidential approval poll, conducted in early December 2025, still shows Trump's approval rating at 36%, with 59% disapproving.
The company said the shift will allow it to place greater emphasis on other research.
"Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people's lives," a Gallup spokesperson said. "That work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll, and our portfolio of U.S. and global research."
The spokesperson added, "This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup's public work with its mission. We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science."
For nearly nine decades, the company’s monthly or periodic presidential approval ratings offered a consistent historical barometer of public sentiment, enabling direct comparison of current presidents with their predecessors.
Those ratings have been used not only as snapshots of presidential popularity but also as data points in academic research on everything from electoral outcomes to midterm effects.
[FoxNews] A former Biden-Harris official was tapped to lead the nonprofit receiving the contract just months prior
A new inspector general's report released Thursday morning accuses the former Biden administration of bypassing federal rules when issuing a more than half-a-billion dollar "sole source contract" to a nonprofit led by a former Biden official to deal with the unaccompanied minor crisis in 2021.
The Administration of Children and Families (ACF), which is under HHS and manages unaccompanied minors, awarded $529 million for a one-year contract in March 2021 to a nonprofit called Family Endeavors Inc. to help establish and manage a new emergency intake site in Texas (EIS) with 2,000 extra beds. However, according to the OIG's new report, Biden's ACF failed to follow federal procurement requirements for full and open competition due to their own "insufficient planning," rather than the COVID-induced emergency the Biden administration cited.
Furthermore, the inspector general's report found that the contract price was more than double the agency's own cost estimate of $244 million, and indicated that the agency "subsequently modified" the award 15 times, extending the period until May 2022 and increasing the value to more than three times the original estimate from ACF.
"ACF knew well in advance of March 2021 that it was projected to need more shelter beds than existing sites could provide and should have begun contract planning at that time," the report states. "ACF failed to reasonably conduct the necessary advanced planning to execute a contract for procurement of those beds and related services using full and open competition."
The report says ACF made only a limited attempt to do the necessary research for the contract, and did not even follow the findings it came up with.
"On March 5, 2021, Endeavors emailed ORR offering emergency assistance for the care of unaccompanied alien children. On March 13, 2021, Endeavors emailed ORR again with an unsolicited proposal, which included a statement of capabilities and concept of operations for an emergency shelter to serve unaccompanied alien children. Three days later, on March 16, 2021, ACF awarded a firm-fixed-price sole source contract to Endeavors to provide and operate an EIS facility in Pecos, Texas," the report states.
The contract beginning March 2021 was "by far the largest ever" for Endeavors Family Inc., and came months after the company hired Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, who served as an advisor to the Biden-Harris transition team. The contract was also the second largest ever awarded by the agency, according to Axios.
"Despite multiple requests, ACF could not provide support for its review of the Endeavors quote, the price analysis techniques used to analyze the quote, or an [independent Government cost estimate] for an EIS dated before the contract was awarded," the new inspector general's report states. "When we asked for documentation, ACF told us that it was under significant time constraints to award contracts."
Family Endeavors Inc. told Axios that its work on the border was a "continuation of services" that it has conducted for the migrant population since 2012. By April 2021, a month after the contract began, federal procurement records showed ACF had already paid $255 million of the no-bid contract to the nonprofit, which had already dwarfed the nonprofit's total $43 million budget in 2018.
Family Endeavors Inc. did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News seeking comment.
In September 2023, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., then chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., then chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Accountability, sent a letter to Lorenzen-Strait about his ties to both the Biden administration and Endeavors. The letter requested him to both reach out to the committee for an interview and mandated he preserve records on his communications with leaders involved in granting other "sole source" contracts.
"On January 20, 2021, Family Endeavors, Inc. (Endeavors) named you the Senior Director for Migrant Services and Federal Affairs. Immediately preceding your position with Endeavors, you served on the Biden-Harris transition team, and previously was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official," the letter said. "In March 2021, just two months after you joined Endeavors, ICE awarded an $86.9 million sole source contract to Endeavors to provide beds and services in hotels for migrants who illegally crossed the Southwest border."
The letter cites an undercover video recording from Project Veritas of Lorenzen-Strait "boasting" about his participation in government contracts related to migrant services.
"Specifically, you refer to the Endeavors contract as a ‘corrupt bargain.’ You further discuss ‘brokering’ a deal that won Cherokee Federal, a team of tribally owned federal contracting companies, a nearly $2 billion contract with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide services to unaccompanied alien children," the letter continues with its claims. "In the video, you admit that Cherokee Federal is not equipped to handle the contract. You also admit that while you are publicly involved with the company Deep Water Point & Associates, you hid participation in government contracts through the entities, VerdinPoint and The Tanager Group."
A HHS spokesperson said that under President Donald Trump the ACF is implementing stricter accountability measures and strengthening oversight.
"The previous administration wasted more than $1.8 billion on a facility intended to house illegal aliens that was not even used in the last year of the previous administration, and that kind of fiscal mismanagement is exactly what Secretary Kennedy is working to correct," the spokesperson said. "In fact, this contract was canceled in the early months of the Trump administration as soon as this mismanagement was discovered. HHS and ORR remain fully committed to protecting children, restoring accountability at every level of the system, and putting Americans first."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Pam Bondi traded barbs with just about every Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in a ferocious hearing over the Epstein files.
Donald Trump's Attorney General caused mayhem as she fired back at lawmakers, branding Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin 'a loser', accusing Republican Thomas Massie of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' and sparking laughter as she ranted about the booming stock market.
Bondi's combative performance led to a total meltdown from Rep. Becca Balint who stormed out of the hearing after the Attorney General seemingly grew frustrated by one of many questions about Jeffrey Epstein, and launched into an attack on the Democrat's voting record - accusing her of antisemitism for not supporting Israel.
Balint was the first Jewish congress member to use the term 'genocide' to describe the war in Gaza.
She may be smart — I don’t know — but she definitely lacks wisdom and insight.
'With this antisemitic culture, she voted against a resolution condemning...' Bondi said, before being interrupted by Balint.
'You want to go there? …. You're talking to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust,' Balint responded, before slamming her chair into the dais behind her and storming out of the room, fuming.
…which should have given her greater insight, but her politics got in the way.
Balint repeatedly asked Bondi if her department has investigated the ties top Trump administration leaders have to Epstein, at one point stating 'this is not a game, secretary,' to which Bondi responded: 'I'm attorney general.'
'My apologies, I couldn't tell,' Balint jabbed back.
More in the same vein at the link. The Times of Israel has the damning full sentence the Daily Mail elided so we wouldn’t understand what AG Bondi was fussing about, because the Daily Mail is terribly British on the subject of Israel and Jews:
“With this antisemitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution condemning ‘from the river to the sea,’” said Bondi, appearing to refer to Balint’s April 2024 vote against a House resolution condemning the common pro-Palestinian slogan. (At the time, Balint said the resolution was “yet another way to sow division and demonize Palestinians.”)
Balint quickly shot back at Bondi’s remarks.
“Oh, do you want to go there, attorney general? Do you want to go there? Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust? Really? Really?” said Balint, before rising from her seat and exiting the chambers.
#2
It was a dumpster fire. They asked her pointed questions why billionaires' names were redacted instead of victims and she replied by nattering about how great the economy is doing. A classic SJW move we're all familiar with but usually they change the subject to racism.
#8
“Oh, do you want to go there, attorney general? Do you want to go there? Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust? Really? Really?” said Balint, before rising from her seat and exiting the chambers.
$5 says this act was coached. Says the handler, "Don't have to explain your vote, and you might even grab some headlines."
#9
On a squirrelly note, looks like Jarmusch protegé (and Basquiat-bonker?!?) Eszter Balint grew up to be just the kind of person that the parents of the shades-of-gray cool kids who adored her back in the '80s would've hoped she would. Validation and Turkish coffee for everybody! [Borsodi's crowd does jazz hands]
“Good. Now we can get together without those jerks spoiling our fun.”
[FoxNews] A revolt is brewing after Democratic governors Wes Moore and Jared Polis did not receive invites to a White House dinner
A chorus of Democratic governors are rallying behind their fellow Democratic Governors Jared Polis, from Colorado, and Wes Moore, from Maryland, after they did not receive invites for a traditionally bipartisan White House dinner.
Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker was among those who decided they would be boycotting the slate of events hosted at the White House for the National Governors Association's annual winter gathering held Feb. 19–21.
"No way will I attend the White House dinner with this President," Gov. Pritzker said Tuesday. "I’m standing with Gov. Wes Moore and Gov. Jared Polis — and standing against Trump’s corruption and hatred. And I’m calling on my Republican colleagues to do the same."
The boycott is being led by the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and its vice chair, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Other Democratic Party governors who have committed to the boycott include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. A coalition of 18 governors signed a statement Tuesday slamming President Donald Trump for creating "chaos and division" by snubbing the state leaders.
The White House reportedly decided to divert from the traditional path of inviting both Republican and Democratic governors to the events being held at the White House. Although a White House official also reportedly told Politico that "many Democrats were invited to dinner at the White House" while others were not.
The move not to invite all Democrat governors to the winter gathering comes after President Trump got into a public spat with Democrat Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, at a bipartisan "Governors Working Session" last year in February over transgender sports participation. The heated back-and-forth was televised on national stations for all to see and led to the pair exchanging barbs for the subsequent weeks over the matter and over the state's unwillingness to follow federal orders, such as those related to transgender sports participation.
When reached for comment on the matter, a White House spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to press secretary Karoline Leavitt's comments Tuesday on the matter from the White House briefing room, during which she defended President Trump's decision to not invite the Democratic Party governors.
"I just spoke with the president about this. It is a dinner at the White House. It's the people's house. It's also the president's home, and so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House," Leavitt told reporters from the White House briefing room Tuesday.
She added that Gov. Moore had been invited the previous year, but never ended up coming.
Snubber snubbed? Ok then.
"Nobody reported on it. But, again, the president has the discretion to invite whomever he wants to the White House, and he welcomes all those who received an invitation to come and if they don't want to that's their loss."
During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Moore suggested his lack of an invite was due to race, telling the show it was "not lost" on him that he is the only Black governor in the country and the president was trying to deny him attendance at an organization's event that Moore said his fellow Democrat governors have said they would like to see him lead. Moore also pointed to the fact he led a delegation of governors to the White House several weeks ago.
In a statement, Brandon Tatum, CEO of the National Governors Association (NGA), said he was "disappointed in the administration's decision."
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who is the chairman of the NGA, said in a Monday letter to fellow governors that the association was "no longer serving as the facilitator" for the upcoming event, according to The Associated Press. Stitt said the NGA was meant to represent all governors — those of the 50 states as well as the governors of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
#2
Never heard of the dinner. Not sure why these two no names would be excluded. Maybe the invites are just stuck in the same vortex that sucks in Dem mail-in votes until 48 hours after an election.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/12/2026 4:18 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Perhaps Pritzker learned that Pam Bondi was to be featured speaker at the dinner.
In Trump's own words: “The invitations were sent to ALL Governors, other than two, who I feel are not worthy of being there.”
“I did not invite the Governor of Colorado, who has unfairly incarcerated in solitary confinement a 73-year-old cancer stricken woman (A nine year term!), for attempting to fight Democrat Voter Fraud, plus the foul mouthed Governor of Maryland, who fraudulently stated that he received Military medals, A LIE, is doing a terrible job on the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and has allowed Baltimore to continue to be a Crime Disaster."
#8
He's a POS no matter his weight, which he'll address by GLP-1s before the next election. Call him out on his f'd up policies, hypocrisies, and just being a POS
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/12/2026 19:22 Comments ||
Top||
#9
With regard to Governor Pritzker: GLP-1s don’t work nearly as well without an aggressive exercise program, though there are secondary benefits even without serious weight loss — no need to ask me how I know.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
