Trump approval rating dips to 44 percent: poll

President Trump’s approval rating dipped to 44 percent in June after hitting a two-year high the previous month, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey released exclusively to The Hill.

The drop coincided with a simultaneous decrease in approval for the president’s handling of the economy. Fifty-six percent of voters surveyed said they approve of Trump’s approach to stimulating job growth, down from 62 percent in May.

The poll found that a majority of respondents, 55 percent, still approve of the president’s overall handling of the economy, but that is down from 59 percent in the previous survey.{mosads}

Trump’s overall approval rating in the poll dropped 4 percentage points from May, when it was 48 percent — his highest in the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll since June 2017.

“Trump’s approval is see-sawing along with attitudes towards the economy. When the economic indicators were at a peak, so was his approval rating,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll. “They set back a bit this month and so did his rating. He still is in this range of 44 to 48 [percent] that we have seen through most of the last two years.”

The dip underscores a challenge for Trump: despite a sound economy — with 69 percent of poll respondents saying the economy is strong — many voters harbor doubts about the president.

An Associated Press/NORC poll released last week turned up a similar result. While approval of Trump’s handling of the economy was relatively high — 47 percent — his overall approval rating sat at 38 percent.

According to the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, Trump’s lowest approval marks were on his stewardship of foreign affairs and administering the government, taking 42 percent and 43 percent on those issues, respectively.

Those figures come amid heightened tensions with Iran over a downed U.S. drone and attack on two oil tankers, as well as a continued long-running trade battle with China and pressure to halt North Korea’s nuclear program, among other issues.

Still, Trump’s support among Republicans remains high, with 83 percent approving of the job he’s doing in the White House.

Among Democratic voters, just 13 percent approve of Trump’s job in office, while 41 percent of independents say the same.

How Trump’s approval bears on his reelection remains to be seen.

Thirty-six percent of voters said they would either definitely or probably vote for Trump in 2020, while 45 percent said they would either definitely or probably choose the eventual Democratic candidate. Another 8 percent said they planned to vote for an independent or someone else entirely.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll online survey of 2,182 registered voters was conducted from June 26-29.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll. The Hill will be working with Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll throughout 2019.

Full poll results will be posted online later this week. The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.