A new poll shows Donald Trump’s nemesis and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has the highest approval rating among current political leaders.
A Gallup survey shows Americans rate Powell higher than the president, members of Trump’s cabinet and leading Democrats. Trump has long rebuked Powell while calling for rate cuts.
Polls show Powell’s approval rating is 44%, while Trump’s second-term approval rating is 36%. The president’s current approval rating is only slightly higher than the all-time low of 34% reached after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Donald Trump has made no secret of his dislike of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. /Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the only politician with an approval rating above 40% in the poll, with 41%.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (28%) and Senate Republican Leader John Thune (34%) have the lowest approval ratings, as do Vice President Vance (39%), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (36%), House Speaker Mike Johnson (35%) and embattled Attorney General Pam Bondi (36%).
Trump may be particularly annoyed by how Americans view Powell. The president has repeatedly called on Powell to resign, at times even suggesting he could fire him as Fed chairman, while spewing insults.
A Gallup poll does show that only 34% of Republicans support Jerome Powell. / Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Trump has spent months attacking Powell as “dumb,” “dumb” and a “moron” for refusing to slash interest rates to offset the president’s economically damaging tariffs. The president was so angry at Powell’s refusal to give in to his demands that he seemed to have forgotten that he appointed him in the first place.
“He’s a terrible Fed chairman. I’m surprised he was appointed,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in July, even though he nominated Powell in 2017.
That same month, there was a painful moment in the pair’s fractured relationship, when Powell corrected Trump in person after the president falsely claimed that renovations to the Fed’s Washington, D.C., headquarters would cost a total of $3.1 billion.
When Powell questioned its source, Trump said the number “just came out.” After reviewing a document handed to him by Trump, Powell countered that Trump was “adding a third building to the total that was built five years ago.”
“This is part of the overall effort,” Trump insisted, prompting Powell to reply again: “This is nothing new.”
Powell, whose term as Fed chairman ends in May 2026, has cut interest rates three times this year as the Fed attempts to revive the struggling economy during Trump’s second term.
The most recent cut of 0.25 percentage points occurred on December 10, lowering the benchmark interest rate to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.