Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

US President Donald Trump’s job approval rating reached its highest recorded level since the beginning of his presidency, amid the launch of impeachment proceedings against him by House Democrats.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, the President’s job approval rating rose to 45.3% on average, the highest level since February 5th, when his job approval rating was 45.7%. Trump’s current job approval rating is just shy of his all-time recorded high of 46% on February 4th.

Trump’s net job approval rating remains underwater, however, with 52.1% of Americans disapproving of his performance as president according to an average of recent polls. That’s far above the lowest disapproval rating of his presidency, 44.2%, which was recorded nine days after Trump’s January 20th 2017 inauguration.

Two recent polls showed Trump’s approval rating higher than his disapproval rating – one poll by Emerson, which showed 48% percent of registered voters approving of Trump’s performance, compared to 47% who disapproved, giving the president a net job approval rating of +1.

The second poll, by Rasmussen, found that 53% of likely voters approved of Trump’s job performance, compared to just 45% who disapproved. That is the highest approval rating for Trump’s presidency according to Rasmussen since February 17th 2017. The Rasmussen poll is the lone survey included in the RCP average which polled likely voters, rather than registered voters.

A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of registered voters showed Trump with a 45% approval rating, compared to 53% disapproval. The NBC/WSJ poll a record high 69% of Americans dislike Trump personally, with just 29% saying they like the president personally. That’s a record high not only for Trump, but for every president since Ronald Reagan. The previous record high was 42% of Americans who said they disliked George W. Bush personally in March 2006 after Hurricane Katrina.

The Hill-HarrisX poll released last Friday showed Trump with a 47% job approval rating, compared to 53% disapproval, a one-percent increase over a previous survey in August, despite a slight decline in support from Republicans.

According to the poll, 55% of registered white voters approved of Trump’s performance as president, compared to 26% of blacks, 37% of Hispanics, 27% of Asians, and 22% of registered voters who did not fit into any of the other categories. By comparison, according to exit polls, in 2016, Trump received 57% of the white vote, 8% of the black vote, 28% of the Hispanic vote, 27% of the Asian vote, and 36% of voters in the ‘Other’ category.

Aside from the general rise in his average approval rating, Trump has also gained ground on his likely 2020 Democratic opponents.

While the August survey by Emerson found Joe Biden leading Trump 54% to 46% in a head-to-head matchup, the September poll showed Biden’s lead shrinking to a single point: 50% to 49%.

Trump now leads Sanders, 51-49, after Sanders led Trump in the August poll 52-48. While Trump was tied 50-50 with Kamala Harris last month, he now leads her 52-48. Only Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was tied with Trump at 50-50 last month, gained ground, and now holds a two-point lead at 51-49.