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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Impeachment Support Dips While Trump Approval Rating Rises

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has steadily increased while support for impeachment has continued to drop since the start of the inquiry by the House of Representatives, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

(CN) – President Donald Trump’s approval rating has steadily increased while support for impeachment has continued to drop since the start of the inquiry by the House of Representatives, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Gallup reports Trump’s current job performance approval rating currently sits at 45%, a six-point boost since October when House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry to investigate allegations that the president withheld military aid to Ukraine to encourage Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Trump’s approval rating is one of the highest since he took office in January 2017, second only to the 46% he enjoyed this past May.

Public support for impeachment, however, has taken a hit since the start of the inquiry. Gallup reports that 46% of Americans support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, down from 51% shortly after the inquiry began.

Support for impeachment remains largely split along party lines. The poll reports that 85% of Democrats continue to support Trump’s impeachment, while just 5% of Republicans say they approve of impeachment.

Independents, while still generally divided on impeachment, have expressed less support for it in recent months. While a pair of polls from October found a majority of independents supported impeachment, Wednesday's poll found their support has fallen to 48%.

These numbers come in on the day the House is set to vote on two articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – levied against the president.

Despite the drop in support for impeachment, the figures remain higher than they were for the proceedings against President Bill Clinton, the last president to officially face impeachment, 20 years ago. In October 1998, the same month the House began impeachment proceedings against Clinton, just 32% said they believed he should be impeached and removed from office while 65% believed he should not.

Support for Trump’s impeachment remains lower, however, than the support seen for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. On the month of Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, 58% of American’s believed that Nixon’s behavior in the Watergate matter justified his removal from office.

Amid these impeachment proceedings, Gallup reports the approval rating of Congress has seen a notable surge in recent months. Congress currently enjoys an approval rating of 27%, a nine-point increase from September.

The figure represents one of the highest approval ratings Congress has received during the Trump administration, rivaled only by the 28% approval Congress in February 2017 after Trump’s inauguration and Republicans assumed majority control of both houses of Congress.

Motivating this increased congressional support is the fact that more Democrats and independents approve of the job Congress is doing. Just under 40% of Democrats approve of Congress’ work, one of the highest approval ratings Democrats have given lawmakers in a decade.

Independents, meanwhile, offer Congress a 29% approval rating, the highest for that group since 2009.

Republicans, however, don’t share the opinion of Congress. Just 12% of Republicans say Congress is doing a good job – the lowest figure from GOP voters in almost four years.

The Gallup poll surveyed 1,025 adults and has a 4% margin of error.

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Categories / Government, Politics

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