Congress is the most popular it's been since 2009
Congress is enjoying a spike in popularity in the early days of the Trump administration, a new Gallup survey finds, hitting its highest national approval rating — 28 percent — since 2009. January's one-month increase of 9 percent approval is also the largest single-month growth in the last eight years.
Predictably, the Republican-controlled Congress is most popular among Republicans, 50 percent of whom say they approve of the job Congress is currently doing. Still, independents are feeling 8 percent more positive about Congress than they did a month ago, while Democrats feel 8 percent less positive, expressing just 11 percent approval.
The 29 percent overall approval rate almost matches Gallup's historical average of 30 percent.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
The age of criminal responsibilityThe Explainer England and Wales ‘substantially out of kilter with the rest of the world’, says filmmaker whose drama tops Netflix charts
-
Spiralism is the new cult AI users are falling intoUnder the radar Technology is taking a turn
-
Can for-profit geoengineering put a pause on climate change?In the Spotlight Stardust Solutions wants to dim the sun. Scientists are worried.
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
