President Donald Trump has a chance to do two incredible things.
First, with a successful second term he could buck a major historical trend.
Second, as his popularity increases, Trump could soon eclipse former President Barack Obama while relegating the 44th president to a historical footnote.
Tuesday on “The Benny Show” podcast, pollster Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen Reports told host Benny Johnson that Trump’s approval rating at this point in his presidency will soon surpass that of Obama at the same point in his second term.
“You’re saying that President Trump is about to beat Barack Obama for being the most popular president in our lifetimes?” Johnson asked in a clip posted to the social media platform X.
“At this point in the term and going forward, yeah, 100 percent,” Mitchell replied.
The key phrase “at this point in the term” sounds like a caveat. In truth, however, it makes Trump’s achievement all the more remarkable.
Recall, for instance, how Obama entered the presidency. The media glorified him. His face appeared on posters, accompanied by the word “HOPE.”
Will Trump go down in history as a better president than Obama?
“They were releasing doves at all of his rallies and stuff like that,” Mitchell said of Obama’s 70 percent approval rating at the beginning of his first term. “Yeah, he came in with a really high approval rating. Everybody thought that he was going to cure the great financial crisis. And now, look what happened. It absolutely imploded, as well.”
By “it,” Mitchell meant Obama’s approval rating, which steadily declined over the course of his presidency.
🚨MASSIVE: Pollster Mark Mitchell says President Trump is on pace to pass Obama as the most popular president in U.S. history:
“At this point, yeah 100%. Trump is about to outperform him. That’s what is going to happen.” pic.twitter.com/nzZuZqdrtG
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 24, 2025
Trump, by contrast, entered the presidency facing headwinds from the entire establishment and its media minions. To this day, of course, the 47th president continues to face hostility from those same sources.
Despite that hostility — or perhaps partly because of it — Trump has seen his popularity increase. And that flies in the face of a major historical trend.
From George Washington through Obama, presidential second terms often prove less successful than first terms.
To examine that phenomenon would require a full-length article or even a book. But pick a two-term president from any era — Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, etc. — consider the difficulties they faced in their second terms, then contrast those difficulties with their relatively successful first terms. The rule does not hold in every instance, but it holds often enough that it constitutes a trend.
While it remains early, Trump appears poised to buck that trend by enjoying a more successful second term.
Of course, one senses that the 47th president relishes one related achievement: vanquishing Obama.
Recall, for instance, one of the viral moments of the last decade, when Obama, appearing during the “Mean Tweets” segment on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” read a tweet from Trump, who characterized Obama as “perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States!”
“At least I will go down as a president,” Obama replied, dropping his phone in the style of a “mic drop.”
Readers may relive that moment in the following 20-second clip, posted to X.
“Well, @realDonaldTrump, at least I will go down as a president.” Pres. Obama responds to Trump tweet on @JimmyKimmelLive. #MeanTweets pic.twitter.com/BW5igd2moZ
— ABC News (@ABC) October 25, 2016
As he often did, Obama looked quite smug in that “mic drop” moment.
One wonders how he feels now, knowing that Trump, despite all obstacles, stands poised to eclipse Obama’s media-manufactured popularity while relegating the 44th president to an afterthought in the future history of the early 21st century.
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