Consumer confidence in the opening days of August soared to its second-highest level of the year as steady employment growth and booming stock performance inflated Americans' assessment of how the U.S. economy is doing.

The University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers polling outfit on Friday published the latest edition of its popular sentiment tracker. That metric climbed 4.5 percent over the month to its highest level since President Trump first took office in January. Confidence was ultimately up 8.7 percent on the year.

But the polling group's chief economist warns sentiment could end up sliding by the end of August as fallout from violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend continues.

Consumer expectations of what lies in store for the economy boomed in the opening days of August, as the subindex climbed 10.6 percent over the month and 13.1 percent on the year. Americans' assessment of current conditions, meanwhile, edged down slightly, dropping 2.1 percent from July's 12-year high.

Richard Curtin, the Surveys of Consumers chief economist, chalked the overall confidence gain up to "a more positive outlook for the overall economy as well as more favorable personal financial prospects" in a statement accompanying the report.

The Dow Jones industrial average, for example, eclipsed the 22,000-point threshold in early August for the first time in history, and similarly positive performance from the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite index accentuated the good-feelings on Wall Street and, more broadly, among the American public.

"Nonetheless, the partisan difference between the optimism of Republicans and the pessimism of Democrats is still likely to persist, with Independents remaining as the bellwether group," Curtin said.

Indeed, Republicans' sentiment has soared in the aftermath of Trump's presidential victory, even as big-ticket legislative items like health care and tax reform sit idle on Capitol Hill. Democrats, on the other hand, have seen a considerable dip in their respective assessments of where the economy is headed.

Curtin warns, though, that August's positive data could end up sliding by the end of the month, noting that he feels there were "too few interviews" conducted after violence broke out at a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, where a white supremacist drove a car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring more than a dozen. That man accused of driving the car has been charged with second-degree murder.

"The fallout is likely to reverse the improvement in economic expectations recorded across all political affiliations in early August," Curtin said. "Moreover, the Charlottesville aftermath is more likely to weaken the economic expectations of Republicans, since prospects for Trump's economic policy agenda have diminished."

Indeed, Trump's initial reaction to the violence – during which he said "many sides" were at fault and did not explicitly condemn the neo-Nazi and white supremacist presence at the rally – drew criticism across party lines. And his subsequent comments on the matter eventually drove a handful of corporate executives to withdraw from a pair of presidential advisory councils.

Trump ended up disbanding those councils on Wednesday, and reports surfaced Thursday that a separately planned infrastructure advisory council would not be assembled as originally intended.

Several GOP lawmakers either called on the president directly to distance himself from white supremacist groups or issued statements that condemned such bodies without explicitly referencing Trump by name or title.

And as Trump continues to antagonize lawmakers in his own party, criticizing Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., amid the Charlottesville fallout, some strategists believe patience for the president is wearing thin on Capitol Hill – throwing future tax reform and health care overhaul efforts into question.