Trump Approval on the Rise, Back to 45

A Morning Consult/Politico poll has President Donald Trump’s approval rising to 45 percent of registered voters in the first month of December, his best result in that poll since September and matching his highest since July.

Conducted Dec. 1-3 and released Wednesday, the poll also indicates 51 percent of the 1997 registered voters contacted disapprove of the president’s job performance.

Trump gets his best results among middle class Americans, those with household incomes between fifty and one hundred thousand dollars a year. Among this group, a plurality of voters approve of Trump, with 49 percent strongly or somewhat approving of his job performance, compared to 48 percent disapproving.

That result is significantly better than among working class and poor Americans. Among registered voters with a household income under 50 thousand dollars, Trump’s approval is only 41 percent, against 53 percent disapproving. Upper middle class and wealthy Americans are also less happy with the president’s job performance, with 48 percent of registered voters whose households earn more than 100 thousand dollars approving and 50 percent disapproving.

Overall Trump support among Republicans remains high, with 80 percent approving and only 19 percent disapproving. At 83 percent approval, Republican women are even more likely to support the president than their male co-partisans, of whom only 77 percent approve, although Republican men were slightly more likely to “strongly” approve.

Approval among Democrats holds steady at a low 16 percent. Independents lean heavily against Trump at 37 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval.

Stated opposition to Trump appears to be based more on perceptions of the man himself than his policy positions. Only 26 percent of voters believe President Trump is “too conservative,” while 47 percent believe he is a “racist,” 54 percent that he is a “sexist,” and 60 percent that he is reckless.

Meanwhile, this poll shows markedly more support for the Republicans’ tax cut bill than previous polling. Forty-six percent of resgistered voters are reported as strongly or somewhat supporting the legislation, while only 37 percent oppose. ABC News/Washington Post poll last month showed only 33 percent of voters supporting the plan, with 50 percent opposed.