This is your weekly reality check. What's really going on with the public's opinion of the president and our view of the direction of the country? Trump's current ratings are at 42% approval.
Another week of the unconstitutional impeachment inquiry process playing out. Another week of mainstream news media reporting what’s leaked to them. Despite Trumps's approval rating average being the same, there are numerous changes based on the sampling that’s not in President Trump’s favor. First, let's look at a quick rundown of where we are at this point in the cycle just over a year away from the 2020 election.
President Trump is only 4% off of his record-high average approval rating since the whistle-blower scandal began. Without any additional perspective that’s notable, consider this. President Obama’s average approval rating was only 2% higher than President Trump’s on the same date in his Presidency. With everything that’s been levied against President Trump since the day he took office.
Now for the less rosy news for President Trump this week. The sampling. It’s been the case throughout his term thus far, that the more informed and engaged someone is politically, the more likely they are to approve of President Trump. That remains the case once again this week but the dynamic has shifted considerably as his performance with likely voters just reached 44%, that's the lowest level since August of 2017.
What you never hear reported are the ratings of the Democratic leaders opposing him. Pelosi is at 40% and Schumer at 28%. Speaker Pelosi is up another point this week and is now six points higher than where she was prior to announcing the impeachment inquiry. It’s clear that she’s rallying her base to her side with the impeachment push. Still, Nancy and especially Chuck have to look up to find President Trump.
As for the direction of the country this week, we're at 36%. Even in the midst of impeachment palooza 2019, we’re 6% collectively more optimistic than we were during the Obama administration.
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