Trump's approval rating ticks up from historic lows


A series of opinion polls in the past week have shown President Trump's approval rating ending its summer slide and edging up a few points, following his handling of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and his nods toward bipartisanship. In Gallup's weekly tracking poll, Trump is up to 38 percent approval, from a low of 35 percent in late August, following his comments on the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville. A new Politico/Morning Consult poll has Trump at 43 percent, after hitting 39 percent last month, and a Marist poll from last week clocked Trump at 39 percent approval, from 35 percent in August.
Different polls have Trump recovering among Republicans and/or independents, but staying essentially unchanged among Democrats. His decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program polls poorly, but he got good marks for his handling of recent natural disasters. Trump's RealClearPolitics average is 40 percent, up 2.5 points from last month. All those numbers are historically low for a first-term president.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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