Donald Trump’s approval rating has risen by five points over the last month, with more than half of respondents in favor of his federal takeover of Washington, D.C.’s police force.
According to a survey from the Associated Press/NORC, 45 percent of surveyed Americans approve of Trump’s handling of his role since returning to the Oval Office in January. That’s a five-point increase over the response to the same poll administered in July.
The president has also seen an increase in approval for his handling of the economy, with 43 percent of respondents approving. That’s another five-point jump since last month, when it was 38 percent. That said, most Americans — approximately 6 in 10 adults — still believe the economy is in a poor state.
The president’s approval was also up in a Gallup survey released this week. His approval rating, according to that survey, is 40 percent, up three points from the same poll last month.
That survey was a bit less rosy for the president, however. His approval rating for his foreign policy work is at 39 percent, a new low for the poll during his second term. That drop falls in line with Trump’s very public — and thus far fruitless — meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government.
Respondents’ views on Trump’s economic agenda fell to around 37 percent as grocery prices remain high and a jobs report showed that job growth in the U.S. was nearly at a standstill.
Approximately 53 percent of respondents approved of his actions to curb crime, according to the poll.
Despite actual police stats suggesting otherwise, two-thirds of the poll’s respondents said they believe that crime is a serious issue, with 8 in 10 agreeing that crime is a “major problem” in large cities. Approximately one in five Americans said that crime is a major issue in rural or small towns, or the areas where they live, according to the survey.
More than half of the respondents agreed with the president’s use of the National Guard and federal agents to curb violent crime in major cities. Approximately a third of the respondents said they supported Trump’s takeover of police departments in major cities.
A majority of Republican voters, approximately 82 percent, said it was “somewhat acceptable” for the federal government to deploy the National Guard and military to assist local police. Just over half — 51 percent — of Republicans said it was acceptable for the federal government to take over a city’s police department.
That stands contrary to Republicans’ long-held conviction that the federal government should remain constrained and largely uninvolved in the affairs of state and local governments, marking an apparent shift in Republican ideology.
The majority of Democratic supporters opposed both Trump’s takeover of major city police departments and his use of the National Guard and other military units for policing.
