Reading Time: < 1 minute

Our newsletters:

A great way to stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. 👍

The Wednesday Report
Wisconsin Weekly
Forward

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

The highest proportion of veterans who expressed having trust in the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department was roughly 80%, once during President Donald Trump’s administration and once under President Joe Biden.

In quarterly customer experience surveys, done since 2016, the highest “trust” scores were 80.2% in 2021, under Trump; and 80.4% in 2024, under Biden.

The trust scores were lowest, at 55%, when the first survey was done during the first quarter after Trump took office, but rose under Trump.

Trump claimed at a May 1, 2024, campaign rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, that “we had the highest approval rating in the history of the VA, 92%.”

In surveys about VA outpatient care, begun in 2017, the highest trust scores reached 90% under Trump and nearly 92% under Biden.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Google Docs: Terrence Hayes VA email 5/8/24

Rev.com: Donald Trump rally transcript

VA News: Veteran trust in VA reaches all-time high

VA News: Trust in VA among Veteran patients rises to 91.8%, up 6% since 2018

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site. *** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. *** You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

Credit should be given, in this format: “By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch”
Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Waunakee, Wis.” instead of “Waunakee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
If published online, you must include the links and link to wisconsinwatch.org
If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
Don’t extract, store or resell Wisconsin Watch content as a database.
Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.
If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org

Did the Trump administration have the highest-ever approval rate for Veterans Affairs at 92%?

by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
May 13, 2024

<h1>Did the Trump administration have the highest-ever approval rate for Veterans Affairs at 92%?</h1>
<p class="byline">by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch <br />May 13, 2024</p>

<div class="wp-block-group">
<div class="wp-block-group">
<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:26% auto">
<figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Wisconsin_Watch_fact_brief-782x409.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1278996 size-full" /></figure>
<div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p><em><em><a href="https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/">Wisconsin Watch</a></em> partners with&nbsp;<a href="https://gigafact.org/">Gigafact</a>&nbsp;to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. <a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/05/how-wisconsin-watch-checks-claims-for-its-gigafact-fact-briefs/">Read our methodology</a> to learn how we check claims.</em></p>
</p></div>
</div></div>
<div class="wp-block-group">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">No.</h2>
</p></div>
<p>The highest proportion of veterans who expressed having trust in the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department was roughly&nbsp;80%, once during President Donald Trump’s administration and once under President Joe Biden.</p>
<p>In quarterly customer experience surveys, done since 2016, the highest “trust” scores were 80.2% in 2021, under Trump; and 80.4% in 2024, under Biden.</p>
<p>The trust scores were lowest, at&nbsp;55%, when the first survey was done during the first quarter after Trump took office, but rose under Trump.</p>
<p>Trump&nbsp;claimed&nbsp;at a May 1, 2024, campaign rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, that “we had the highest approval rating in the history of the VA, 92%.”</p>
<p>In surveys about VA outpatient care, begun in 2017, the highest trust scores reached 90% under Trump and nearly 92% under Biden.</p>
<p><em>This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as <a href="https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/slIweEUXlojmb24NRTdgHk_yqcdxKOMUKUQ381yMC5NRro3cme5okRYBJasDztPNZ2GwkvsQ-_dqNsZDWkWBIvqKsBs?loadFrom=PastedDeeplink&amp;ts=2194.47" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this one</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Sources</strong></p>
<p>Google Docs: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uZhRXd00WnqqM2QASlnTsNOKUOFy-9JUT5i16RsbAao/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terrence Hayes VA email 5/8/24</a></p>
<p>Rev.com: <a href="https://archive.is/AslGx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Donald Trump rally transcript</a></p>
<p>VA News: <a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/veteran-trust-in-va-reaches-all-time-high/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Veteran trust in VA reaches all-time high</a></p>
<p>VA News: <a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/trust-in-va-among-veteran-patients-rises-to-91-8/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trust in VA among Veteran patients rises to 91.8%, up 6% since 2018</a></p>
</p></div>
<p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/05/trump-veterans-affairs-wisconsin-waukesha-biden-trust-fact-brief/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org&quot;&gt;Wisconsin Watch&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-WCIJ_IconOnly_FullColor_RGB-1.png?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p>
&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1290309&amp;amp;ga4=G-D2S69Y9TDB&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/05/trump-veterans-affairs-wisconsin-waukesha-biden-trust-fact-brief/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/wisconsinwatch.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Did the Trump administration have the highest-ever approval rate for Veterans Affairs at 92%?

Our newsletters:

No.

Read more Fact Briefs

Do solar panels release more emissions than burning fossil fuels?

Do trees explode in extreme cold?

Latest stories

Man killed by Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis was an ICU nurse who grew up in Green Bay

CAFOs want in on proposal meant to help Wisconsin’s small dairy farms

‘Nursery to nursing home’: Walworth County group envisions shared care across generations

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin WatchState fact brief reporter