President Donald Trump talks to reporters in Washington, D.C., April 24, 2019. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

A new Gallup poll shows Donald Trump’s presidential job-approval rating hitting a new high of 46 percent. The survey was conducted from April 17 to April 30, almost entirely following the public release of the Mueller report on April 18. “The latest rating extends the upper limits of President Donald Trump’s narrow approval rating range by one percentage point, from his previous range of 35% to 45%,” Gallup notes.


Trump hit his previous high of 45 percent in Gallup three times during his presidency: following his inauguration in January 2017, after his June 2018 meeting with Kim Jong Un, and after Attorney General Bill Barr released his letter summarizing the Mueller report in March 2019.

On one hand, polling below 50 percent still isn’t a good place to be for an incumbent, especially given the strong economy, and the president currently trails Joe Biden by 7 points and Bernie Sanders by 3 points in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. On the other hand, Barack Obama’s job-approval rating was 44 percent in Gallup polling at the same point in his presidency (April 2011), and he still managed to find a way to win re-election in 2012.