Trump Approval Holds Steady in Face of Impeachment Probe

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite days of focus by national and international news media on the impeachment proceedings currently underway in the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump's job approval rating remains statistically similar to where it has been for weeks. Gallup's latest poll, fielded Nov. 1-14, failed to show a noticeable impact of the impeachment hearings in Congress on presidential approval. In fact, the last time the president's approval rating was 43% was in mid-September, just before news outlets began to report that a whistleblower complaint had been filed regarding a call between Trump and the president of Ukraine.

This relative stability in approval rating contrasts with President Richard Nixon's job approval trajectory, which took a noticeable dip as a potential impeachment inquiry came into focus in the early 1970s.

Trump Approval Remains Strong Among Republicans

As President Trump battles the impeachment inquiry, 90% of Republicans approve of his job performance, while 10% disapprove. These assessments by his fellow Republicans remain statistically unchanged from the previous reading of October 14-31. This implies that despite the heavy focus on the impeachment process and the underlying claims being brought forth by members of Congress, Republicans overall seem unmoved in their assessments of Trump's job performance.

	Republicans	Independents	Democrats
	%	%	%
2019 Nov 1-14	90	38	4
2019 Oct 14-31	89	34	7
2019 Oct 1-13	87	34	5
2019 Sep 16-30	87	36	5
2019 Sep 3-15	91	38	5
2019 Aug 15-30	88	34	3
2019 Aug 1-14	88	37	4
2019 Jul 15-31	88	38	7
2019 Jul 1-12	90	-	-
Gallup

On the question of whether Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 48% of Americans say yes while 50% say no, a rate statistically unchanged since mid-October when Gallup last asked the question. The poll was mostly conducted before public impeachment hearings began. Nevertheless, 69% of Americans, including 79% of both Democrats and Republicans, say they have made up their mind about whether Trump should be impeached.

Trump Approval Highest on Economy

As has remained the case during his term in office, Trump receives higher approval on his management of the economy than he does on his job rating overall as president. The 57% approving of Trump's handling of the economy is, by one percentage point, his best as president. It is also improved from his prior two readings -- 50% in May and 53% in August.

While four in 10 Americans approve of how the president handles foreign affairs and healthcare policy, 46% are satisfied with his position on guns and 40% on foreign affairs. Trump gets his lowest ratings among the six issues tested in the survey on the situation in Syria, where 36% of Americans approve and 57% disapprove of the way he is handling the situation.

	Approve	Disapprove
	%	%
Economy	57	42
Gun policy	46	50
Foreign trade	44	54
Healthcare policy	41	56
Foreign affairs	40	58
Situation in Syria	36	57
Gallup, Nov. 1-14, 2019

It should be noted that polling for this survey was conducted after Trump's decision to pull American troops out of key regions of northern Syria. Critics of the policy have argued this decision has left longtime U.S. Kurdish allies to fend for themselves against fellow NATO ally Turkey and Syrian Regime forces.

Bottom Line

Despite much focus on the impeachment investigation into President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine, his approval rating remains statistically unchanged. When examining various areas of policy, Trump receives his highest ratings on the economy and his lowest on foreign affairs. On the situation in Syria in particular, Trump has a lower rating, 36%, than his current overall approval rating, 43%.

Explore President Trump's approval ratings and compare them with those of past presidents in the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center.

View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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