President Trump has received an early Valentine’s Day kiss from America’s biggest pollster with an approval rating just one point below his “personal best.”

According to Gallup, Trump bounced off his lowest rating of 37 percent to a high of 44 percent approval since he decided to reopen the government.

The survey even suggested that all those pundits were wrong when they judged that the president lost the first government shutdown fight with Congress. The Gallup poll suggests a different verdict. He had his biggest shift from low to high after he opened the government, and also gave his annual State of the Union address.





“The recent political brinksmanship harmed Trump's ratings when he eagerly used the government shutdown as a strategy to force funding for a border wall. At that time, Trump's approval rating fell, while Congress' already low rating held steady. But by reopening the government — something widely seen as evidence of failure — Trump may have won praise from the public, something both sides should bear in mind as they negotiate to avoid a repeat shutdown,” said Gallup.

It is the latest survey to show a positive shift for Trump, who apparently is ready to agree to another deal to keep the government open and one that gives him some money for border security.

Polling analyst Ron Faucheux, who issues a daily newsletter called Lunchtime Politics with Trump’s average polling, put it at 46 percent today, among the president’s highest.

“As we get new polls, it shows President Trump’s approval rating rising in the aftermath of the SOTU address. Today’s average is based on five polls, ranging from 42 percent (The Economist) to 50 percent (Rasmussen). Without these two extremes, it would be 45 percent,” he said in the emailed newsletter Wednesday.

And in an even better result, the latest Gallup survey showed that Trump’s approval rating is twice that of Congress, which sits at 21 percent.

“Trump's overall approval rating, which had slumped to 37 percent amid the shutdown, hasn't been this high since October, after his nominee Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice. His current approval is just one percentage point shy of his personal best, achieved twice in his presidency — in the first week of his term and in June 2018, after his meeting with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un,” said Gallup.





Gallup said that the surge in approval was because independent voters have shifted in Trump’s direction.

What’s more, other recent surveys, including one from Gallup, have found that Americans feel good about their personal finances.