Head-to-head polls with 2020 Democratic presidential nomination front-runner Joe Biden may show President Donald Trump presently trailing, but the president should take some solace in a new poll that registers for Trump his highest approval rating in two years.
The Hill reports on the recently completed Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll:
President Trump’s job approval rating is the highest it’s been in two years, boosted by voter optimism about the economy, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey.
The survey found that 48 percent approve of the job Trump is doing, compared to 52 percent who said they disapprove. That’s up from 45 percent approval in March. The last time the president’s job approval rating reached 48 percent in the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey was in June of 2017.
Trump appears to be getting a lift from the economy, with a record 62 percent approving of his approach to employment and 59 percent approving of his handling of the economy.
While only 39 percent of voters said the country is on the right track, 51 percent said the economy is heading in the right direction. Seventy-one percent of voters said the economy is very strong or somewhat strong.
Trump’s excellent polling on his handling of economic issues is hardly new. As The Daily Wire reported last month, a recent Gallup poll also gave Trump excellent feedback on his handling of the economy:
Americans’ broader perceptions of the U.S. economy in May are similar to what Gallup has found over much of the past year, including in March and April.
- 51% of Americans rate current economic conditions as excellent or good, essentially unchanged from last month’s 50%.
- Just over half of U.S. adults, 54%, say economic conditions are getting better. This is up from 49% in April, but nearly identical to February and March. …
As The Daily Wire reported last month, furthermore, the unemployment rate recently hit the lowest mark in half a century. The Wall Street Journal noted at the time: “American employers picked up the pace of hiring in April and the unemployment rate fell to a half-century low, adding to signs of healthy U.S. economic growth as the expansion approaches its 10th birthday. Private-sector workers saw solid wage gains, with average hourly earnings up 3.2% in April from a year earlier, matching the prior month’s increase.”
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll does include some gloomier, less sanguine news for the president, however. As The Hill observes, “Only 37 percent of voters said they would definitely or probably vote for Trump in the 2020 presidential election, compared to 42 percent who said they would definitely or probably vote for the Democratic nominee.” One explanation for the discrepancy between Trump’s more objective “approval” rating and the more subjective “would you vote for Trump” polling metric is the possibility that this president, more than perhaps any before him, is deeply polarizing and elicits very strong personal reactions on both political sides.
The stock market sharply slid last Friday, following the president’s imposition of tariffs on Mexico. The market was relatively stagnant today.