ust hours before the U.S. House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that the American public remains deadlocked — reliably along party lines — over whether he should be impeached and removed from office.

While that split suggests that Trump will likely survive a Senate trial after the impeachment in the House — a conviction requires a two-thirds vote and thus a sizable number of Republican senators — the survey also finds that about half of all voters say they are certain to vote against the president next November.

And Trump’s job approval rating is stuck in the low or mid-40s, where it’s been in the NBC/WSJ poll for most of the last two years.

“Views on Donald Trump’s impeachment remain locked in place, with most Americans having made up their mind both on Trump and the impeachment investigation a long time ago,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the survey with the Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

McInturff added: “It’s remarkable in the era of Trump that even a story of this magnitude is unable to shift the fulcrum of American politics.”

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Dec. 14-17, right before the House voted to impeach Trump for abusing his power in asking Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic front-runner Joe Biden and his son, and also for obstructing Congress in its impeachment inquiry.

Forty-eight percent of Americans believe that Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while an equal 48 percent say they disagree.

Those numbers are essentially unchanged from late October, when 49 percent said the president should be impeached and removed and 46 percent said they were opposed.

By party, the current poll shows 83 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents supporting the president’s impeachment and removal.

But among Republican respondents, 90 percent oppose his impeachment and ouster.

The survey also finds more than half of the country — 53 percent — saying they approve of the impeachment inquiry, compared to 45 percent who disapprove.

Again, those numbers are nearly identical to where they were in the late October NBC/WSJ poll, and they once again break along party lines.

Asked to explain their feelings over whether to impeach and remove Trump from office, 25 percent of all respondents (including 55 percent of Republicans) say the president has not done anything wrong.

An additional 22 percent (including 35 percent of Republicans) say that he may have done something wrong but that it doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment.

Forty-four percent of Americans (including 79 percent of Democrats) believe his actions before the Ukraine controversy had already been grounds for impeachment.

And 8 percent of respondents (including a sliver of Democrats and independents) say Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine were the first thing he has done that warrants impeachment.

Asked how impeachment might affect their vote for Congress, 30 percent of all Americans say they are more likely to vote for a member who supported impeaching and removing Trump, 33 percent say they are less likely to vote for that person, and 34 percent say it makes no difference either way.

Similarly, 23 percent say they are more likely to vote for a member of Congress who opposed impeaching and removing Trump, 37 percent say they are less likely to vote for that person, and 38 percent say it makes no difference.

NBC