President Trump’s approval rating is at 46 percent, up a point from the prior month, according to a new poll.
The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey finds Trump’s approval rating near the high end of the range for his presidency amid optimism about the economy. Trump’s approval rating topped out in May at 48 percent.
{mosads}However, the survey was conducted between Sunday, Sept. 22 and Tuesday, Sept. 24 and does not fully capture voter attitudes toward impeachment or the whistleblower complaint alleging Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Up until the Ukraine story fully broke the president had been enjoying rising approval ratings over the last two months as fears of a recession had been receding,” said Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll Director Mark Penn.
The poll found that 37 percent of respondents believe the U.S. is on the right track, while 55 percent said wrong track. Only 31 percent of women believe the country is on the right track, compared to 44 percent of men.
Voters generally have a rosy view of the economy.
Sixty-six percent said the economy is strong or very strong, against 34 percent who described it as weak or very weak. Forty-four percent said the economy is on the right track and 44 percent said wrong track.
And while 42 percent said they expect a recession at some point in the near future, 35 percent said they expect the economy to stay the same and 24 percent said they expect it will improve.
Trump gets his highest marks on his handling of the economy, with 55 percent approving of the job he’s doing to stimulate jobs and 54 percent approving of his handling of the economy overall.
The president is underwater on immigration, foreign affairs and administering the government.
And 44 percent said they would definitely or probably vote for the Democrat in the 2020 presidential race, compared to only 38 percent who said they would definitely or probably vote for Trump.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll surveyed 2,009 registered voters from Sept. 22-24. The 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.