Fact check: No, Trump doesn’t have a 100% approval rating among Republicans

By CNN Newsource

Published May 6, 2026 10:49 AM

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump keeps touting a poll that was discussed on CNN in March. On Tuesday, though, Trump wrongly described that poll in three different ways.

Trump has repeatedly mentioned a March 18 television segment featuring CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, who explained that an NBC News poll had found that the president had a 100% approval rating among supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Trump liked the segment so much that he had a video of it played during a late-March speech.

That’s understandable. Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, though, Trump said this: “I am at, according to CNN, 100% approval within the Republican Party … I’m at 100% approval. Did you see the CNN poll? Nobody talks about it. CNN – I think the people that did that poll probably got fired. But within the Republican Party – and MAGA, which is basically 100% of the party, I think, but – 100%.”

There are three false claims in those brief remarks. The poll in question wasn’t a CNN poll, MAGA is not “basically 100% of the party,” and Trump’s approval rating with Republicans is far from 100% – and farther than it was at the beginning of the year.

Here’s a more detailed fact check.

The ‘100%’ result Trump is touting isn’t from a CNN poll

“Nobody talks about” the CNN poll Trump was describing because it doesn’t exist: Enten’s segment was about an NBC News poll. (It’s possible that the president was genuinely confused on this point given that the segment aired on CNN.) The most recent CNN/SSRS poll, conducted from March 26 to 30, found Trump at 80% approval among Republicans.

MAGA is not ‘basically 100% of the party’

There’s no doubting that Trump retains a devoted base of supporters and that he continues to wield formidable influence within the Republican Party. But poll after poll has made clear that the MAGA movement is not close to the “basically 100%” of the party that Trump said he thinks it is.

The NBC News poll Enten was talking about, conducted from February 27 to March 3 by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, found that 42% of the registered voters surveyed identified as Republican or Republican-leaning, while 30% of the registered voters surveyed identified as supporters of the MAGA movement. So MAGA supporters likely made up a strong majority of Republicans and Republican-leaners in this poll, but not all of them.

In a subsequent NBC News poll conducted with SurveyMonkey from March 30 to April 13, which asked different questions than the previous poll, 53% of the self-identified Republicans surveyed said they were more a supporter of MAGA than the Republican Party, but 47% said they were more a supporter of the party than MAGA.

And in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted from April 24-28, 54% of the Republicans and Republican-leaners surveyed said they were supporters of the MAGA movement, but 43% said they were not MAGA supporters. Sixty-five percent of the Republicans and Republican-leaners surveyed said Republican leaders should follow Trump’s leadership, but 34% said they should lead the party in a different direction; that was a change from a February poll, when the split was 71% for the follow-Trump option to 28% for the different-direction option.

Trump isn’t at 100% with Republicans – and he’s been slipping

Trump’s approval with Republicans remains high. But it’s certainly not 100%, and multiple pollsters have found it has declined at least slightly over the course of 2026 as he has become more and more unpopular with the broader public. Here’s a sample of the changes pollsters have found since January.

– Again, the most recent CNN/SSRS poll, conducted from March 26-30, found Trump at 80% approval among Republicans. It was 87% in a CNN/SSRS poll in January.

– The most recent Pew Research Center poll, conducted from April 20-26, found Trump at 68% approval among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. It was 73% in a Pew poll in January.

– The most recent AP-NORC poll, conducted from April 16-20, found Trump at 68% approval among Republicans and people who lean Republican. It was 81% in an AP-NORC poll in January.

– The most recent Fox News poll, conducted from April 17-20, found less of a shift, with Trump at 83% approval among Republican registered voters compared to 85% in a Fox News poll in January.

– The most recent Marquette Law School poll, conducted from April 8-16, found Trump at 78% approval among Republicans and Republican-leaners. It was 83% in a Marquette Law School poll in January.

Article Topic Follows: CNN - US Politics

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