President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal has boosted his approval ratings sharply, as voters rally behind his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to a new Emerson College poll released Friday. “Following the Gaza ceasefire deal, 47% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, while 34% disapprove,” the poll found. That marks a complete turnaround from April, when “30% approved and 46% disapproved.”
Emerson Polling executive director Spencer Kimball noted that “the shift in overall approval comes from independents, who approve 43% to 38%; in April, independents disapproved 43% to 25%.” Republican voters overwhelmingly back Trump’s handling of the conflict—80 percent approve, while just 7 percent disapprove—while Democrats oppose it by a 57-to-19 margin.
Trump’s Gaza ceasefire deal, brokered last week, ended two years of fighting that began with Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel. Under the agreement, Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages, though it has yet to return the bodies of 28 dead hostages. Israel, in turn, released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners but has withheld further aid until Hamas fulfills its promises.
The president also warned Hamas that continued violence would trigger U.S. action. “Hamas will disarm, or we will disarm them,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House, adding the process would “happen quickly, and perhaps violently.”
As Hamas militants execute alleged collaborators in Gaza, Trump’s decisive stance appears to be winning over the American public—especially independents who had previously been skeptical of his foreign policy.
