Trump Approval Rating Jumps to 53%, Highest in Months
As House Democrats insist that a political dustup over a July phone call requires impeachment hearings, Americans as a whole are giving President Donald Trump one of the highest approval ratings of his time in office.
The daily tracking poll by Rasmussen Reports for Tuesday showed that Trump received a 53 percent approval rating.
The president polled that high in February 2017, right after his inauguration, and most recently in April, after the report of former special counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump of colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
He began September with a 45 percent approval rating, but that has increased 8 percentage points, according to Rasmussen’s daily polling.
Trump also has a 43 percent approval rating in the latest Gallup poll. That’s an increase from 39 percent last month, and slightly above his average for the year of 42 percent.
The Rasmussen poll comes as the president is under fire over a July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Washington Post last week reported that a whistleblower complaint lodged with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concerned comments made in the call by Trump. Later reports claimed the president pressured Zelensky to investigate allegations involving Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine. Trump has denied he did anything improper.
This week, new reports have claimed there was a connection between the phone call and a July decision by Trump to temporarily withhold $400 million in aid to Ukraine. In the aftermath of those reports, an increasing number of House Democrats are calling for the House to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, according to The Washington Post.
However, while Democrats have been calling for ousting Trump, the president’s popularity has been rising. Trump noted the increase Monday, when his Rasmussen approval rating was at 52 percent.
Thank you, working hard! pic.twitter.com/1CpxcJOtha
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2019
On Tuesday, Trump dismissed the rising tide of impeachment comments as a purely political effort to block him.
“I think it’s ridiculous. It’s a witch hunt. I’m leading in the polls. They have no idea how they stop me. The only way they can try is through impeachment. This has never happened to a president before. There’s never been a thing like this before. It’s nonsense,” he said, according to a White House media pool report.
Although many in Congress were cautious in their comments about the unfolding Ukraine issue, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming made it clear that to him, this was chiefly a partisan issue.
“What I really see happening is that Democrats are winding up the outrage machine again,” he said, according to USA Today, adding that Democrats are “beating the impeachment drum.”
“They didn’t get what they wanted out of the Mueller investigation. They’re hoping they have something here. I just don’t see it,” he said.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he met with Zelenskiy earlier this month and urged Trump at that time to release aid that he had withheld. Trump refused then, although the aid was later released.
“The rationale that he gave is the concern about corruption in Ukraine, which is what I relayed to President Zelensky, and they all acknowledge it. It’s why he won the election. They’re trying to rid the country of corruption,” Johnson said.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
