Trump triumphs as approval ratings soar and jobless figures fall as he eyes second term

The poll was carried out by Hill-HarrisX and surveyed 1,000 voters nationwide from December 13-14. The survey occurred before Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump, but after the public impeachment hearings.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they approve of the President’s job performance, up three points from the previous December 8-9 poll.

At the same time, those disapproving of Trump’s performance fell three points from 54 percent to 51 percent.

The poll found that Trump’s support among his Republican base was holding up strongly, with as many as nine in ten GOP respondents backing the President.

Trump has used the storm surrounding impeachment to unite his base, while also pointing to a strong economy and job numbers.

The US job market turned in a stellar performance in November, easily outstripping expectations of economic analysts.

266,000 jobs were added last month and the unemployment rate fell from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent.

The new data represents the lowest jobless rates since 1969, in a sign of ever growing confidence in the Trump administration’s economic policies.

American workers have also seen their wage packets rise by as much as 3.1 percent over the past year, which is above the 2.1 percent inflation rate.

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Her tactics have been slammed by leading Republicans as “silly” and “absurd”, with many accusing Ms Pelosi and the Democrats of being overtly political and partisan in their conduct of impeachment.

Newt Gingrich, former Republican House Speaker in 1998 when Bill Clinton was impeached, said Ms Pelosi lacked the strategic acumen for tick-tack-toe, let alone for a game of political chess.

Speaking on Fox News on Friday he commented: “She can’t negotiate with Mitch McConnell.

“McConnell is one of the most formidable leaders in the history of the Senate. She has no leverage over him at all. She ends up looking foolish.

“Every day that this goes on, Pelosi is going to look sillier and sillier and the Democrats are going to look more and more narrowly political and partisan.

“And frankly that is not a very good place to be.”

In exasperation at the tactical naivety of the Democrats he added: “Part two of this entire dance is the Republicans in the Senate.

“McConnell and Lindsey Graham – why would you start a fight in the House knowing you are going to lose control of it to people who are very capable of making you look very foolish?

“And yet that’s the dance they began.”

Mr Gingrich argued that Ms Pelosi was a hostage to the political agenda of the left wing of her party, and was helpless to resist.

source: express.co.uk