Donald Trump's popularity rebounded slightly in this week's Economist / YouGov Poll after his recent slump, but he remains deeply unpopular. This week's poll finds that 36% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of Trump's job performance, and 57% disapprove — a net job approval of -21. That's an improvement for Trump from the week before, when 35% approved and 61% disapproved for a net approval of -26. Two weeks ago, Trump hit the lowest job approval numbers of either of his terms: 33% approval and 62% disapproval, for a net of -29.
It's too early to say whether Trump is seeing a significant rise in popularity, or if these changes represent the normal week-to-week variation of survey research.
A big component of Trump's increase in net job approval over the past week is a rise in support from Independents, who rose from a net approval of -53 last week to -38 this week. But polling results for Independents can be particularly volatile, and Independents' approval of Trump remains in the range of his numbers with the group in recent months.
Democrats continue to lead in the race for Congress. 46% of registered voters say they will vote for the Democratic Party candidate in their district and 40% plan to vote for a Republican Party candidate. That 6-point Democratic lead is in line with Economist / YouGov polls from recent weeks.
But while Democrats have a 6-point lead among all registered voters, Democrats' lead is 11 points among the 79% of registered voters who say they will definitely vote in November: 52% plan to vote for the Democratic candidate and 40% for the Republican candidate. Republicans have an even bigger 22-point lead among registered voters who say they will probably vote in November, but not only is this group less sure that they'll vote, they're also small: only 11% of registered voters.
This analysis focuses only on currently registered voters. 6% of Americans are not registered to vote but say they plan to register before the November election. This group leans Democratic, though this has a high margin of error due to its small sample size.
Almost all Democrats who are registered to vote (91%) say they will definitely vote in November, higher than the 79% of Republican registered voters and 63% of Independent registered voters who say this.
Most registered voters with strongly held views about Trump say they'll definitely vote: 84% of those who strongly approve of Trump, and 87% of those who strongly disapprove of Trump. But almost half (48%) of registered voters strongly disapprove of Trump, compared to only 20% who strongly approve of him
Among the 19% of registered voters who somewhat approve of Trump, 66% say they'll definitely vote in November. Among the 9% who somewhat disapprove of Trump, only 59% say they'll definitely vote.
Image: Getty (Grace Cary)
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