Fifty percent of Americans say they approve of the way President-elect Donald Trump is handling the transition and his preparations to take the Oval Office, while 41 percent disapprove, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

NBC News

But Trump’s approval score is significantly below Barack Obama’s in December 2008 (73 percent) and Bill Clinton’s in December 1992 (77 percent).

(George W. Bush’s approval rating wasn’t taken in the December 2000 NBC/WSJ poll because it was conducted before the conclusion of the Florida recount.)

NBC News

By party, 82 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s transition handling, compared with just 12 percent of Democrats. Fifty-three percent of independents approve of his job.

The NBC/WSJ poll also finds 68 percent of Americans believing that Trump’s presidency will change the way government works -- higher than the 60 percent of respondents who said this about Bill Clinton in December 1992.

And among those who believe Trump’s presidency will change how Washington works, 41 percent see it as the right kind of change, while 20 percent believe it will be the wrong change.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Dec. 12-15 of 1,000 adults – including nearly half of them by cell phone – and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.