Trump Approval Surges, Blows Past Obama’s

Amid the constant storm of bad press, controversy and #resistance outrage, President Trump has seen his approval numbers climb — in fact, according to Rasmussen, he’s outpacing President Obama at the same stage in his presidency.

Rasmussen’s latest numbers from its daily tracking poll are the best Trump’s seen in a while. As of August 2, 50% of U.S. Voters approve of Trump’s job performance, while 49% disapprove.

Though he’s currently got the edge on overall approval, he’s still behind when it comes to those who feel “strongly” about his performance in office. “The latest figures include 35% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 41% who Strongly Disapprove,” Rasmussen reports. “This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -6.”

Over the last month, Trump has been hovering between 44% to 48% approval. The 50% mark measured Thursday is the highest approval he’s attained since May 22.

Below are all of Trump’s numbers for the last two weeks:

[[{“fid”:”36278″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]

By comparison, at the same stage in his presidency, Obama, who had far more sympathetic media coverage, was at 45% approval and 54% disapproval.

Below are Obama’s numbers for the same period, which range from 43% to 47% approval:

[[{“fid”:”36279″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“2”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”2″}}]]

While Rasmussen found Trump tracking quite well, Real Clear Politics’ average is a little less sunny: Trump currently sits at 43.5% approval and 52.8% disapproval in RCP’s average of national polls. While that approval number isn’t great, it’s a significant improvement from eight months ago, when he dropped to an abysmal 37% approval.

Below is a screenshot of RCP’s interactive graph of Trump’s average approval numbers since first taking office:

[[{“fid”:”36282″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“3”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”3″}}]]

Related: New Polls Have Some Painful Numbers For Hillary