Trump's job approval rating highest in nearly three years

President Trump’s job-approval rating reached a record-high 46.3 percent this week in the RealClearPolitics.com polling average. 

Republican strategists and pundits have consistently argued that Trump’s approval rating would improve after the $32 million, nearly two-year-long Russia collusion probe ended with no charges against the president and after the House Democrats’ failed election-year bid to impeach him.

And Democratic presidential candidates having engaged in a recent series of debates in which they have aggressively attacked one another’s job and political histories seems to have improved Trump’s standing among voters or likely voters. 

“While Democrats are floundering in a chaotic primary with a socialist front-runner … President Trump continues to build record support with voters,” the president’s reelection campaign said Tuesday. 

At the same time, Trump has closed a trade deal with China and a joint one with Canada and Mexico, while riding a strong economy. 

Democratic strategists have not aggressively disputed Trump’s numbers, instead wondering aloud about how their party contributed to the increase and whether this is leading to a Trump second term.

“This is very bad. And now it appears the party can’t even count. What the hell am I supposed to think?” longtime Democratic strategist James Carville told MSNBC after major problems with the ballot counting in the Iowa caucuses.

The RCP percentage is typically considered a reliable, non-partisan number because it's an average of multiple polls.

The president’s approval rating has also increased in a Gallup poll, to 49 percent. And a recent Rasmussen Reports poll had Trump at 50 percent, which the president noted in a tweet on February 18. The Rasmussen number is now currently at 51 percent.

Until this month, Trump hadn’t hit 46 percent in the RCP job approval ratings since February 2017.

Still, Trump remains underwater on his approval/disapproval numbers, with 50.6 percent disapproving compared to just 46.3 percent approving, according to the RCP average.