Poll: Trump's popularity soars after election

Donald Trump’s popularity is rising in the days since his election, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll of registered voters.

Forty-six percent of voters now have a very favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of the president-elect. Twelve percent have a somewhat unfavorable opinion and 34 percent have a very unfavorable opinion of him.


It’s a dramatic uptick since the election. Trump’s favorability has grown 9 points, 37 percent to 46 percent, compared to a Morning Consult poll right before the election -- while his unfavorability has dropped 15 points, from 61 percent to 46 percent.

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is also up. Fifty-four percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 43 percent disapprove. That’s up from 50 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving of Obama before the election.

"Trump’s favorability among voters has reached new highs since he became president-elect,” said Morning Consult cofounder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp. "This honeymoon phase is common for new presidents. For example, Obama saw about a 20 point swing in his favor following the 2008 election."

Trump is also getting high marks for his transition effort. Nineteen percent of those polled believe it is more organized than past efforts and another 34 percent believe the transition is about the same, according to the poll that Morning Consult conducted Nov. 16-18.

"About half say Donald Trump's presidential transition is as organized or more organized than previous administrations, whereas about one in three describe it as less organized than past transitions,' said Dropp, though he noted that “many of the initial transition picks including Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions are still largely unknown to Americans."

More than half of the respondents had never heard of, or had no opinion, about Trump’s chief of staff Priebus, chief strategist Bannon or Sessions, the Alabama senator who is Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Still, three in 10 believe that Priebus was a strong choice as chief of staff (27 percent say it was weak). Only two in 10 believe Bannon was a strong choice (34 percent say it was weak).

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll surveyed 1,885 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Thirty-three percent of likely voters self-identified as Democrats, 32 percent as independents and 33 percent as Republicans.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2fikPpd | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2fJbl7c