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Surge: Trump Bounces to Best Economic Approval Yet in...CNN Poll [UPDATE: Impeachment Support Craters]

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  May 03, 2019 10:15 AM

As usual, there are some worrisome data points in a generally Trump-positive poll, but start with the good news for the president: A new national survey from CNN shows public support for his handling of the economy hitting a new high, with Trump also above water on another important metric.  On the heels of a better-than-expected quarter of GDP growth (the US economy has grown at an average clip of better than three percent since the GOP tax reform law was implemented), even a Trump-skeptical to -hostile electorate can recognize prosperity when they see it.  And the man at the top is getting credit:

President Trump’s approval rating on the economy has hit a new high, according to a CNN poll released on Thursday. A majority of respondents — 56 percent — said they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, compared with 41 percent who disapproved. The president's previous high mark on the economy in the CNN poll came in March 2017, when 55 percent approved of his work.

I also find this nugget interesting: "Fifty percent of those polled in the new survey said he has done a good job at keeping the promises the made on the campaign trail. Forty-six percent said he had done a poor job and 4 percent had no opinion." This has to be welcome news to the re-elect team, considering Trump's repeated use of the slogan, "promises made, promises kept." A majority of voters apparently agree.  As for the downsides, the president is upside-down on healthcare (38 percent approval) and immigration (42 percent approval) -- and his overall job approval rating, despite hitting its best mark in this polling series in a year, is still only 43 percent.  Fifty-two percent disapprove.  As I've said before, Trump's re-election will depend on the economy's continued thriving, and his ability to win over a significant chunk of voters who approve of him on that issue, in spite of their qualms about his leadership on the whole.

It could certainly help his cause that leading Democratic presidential hopefuls continue to call for large tax increases on the middle class, having swallowed their own dishonest talking points about the Trump-signed tax cuts.  As a refresher, 80 percent of all Americans received a tax cut in 2018 thanks to the new law, including roughly 91 percent of middle class filers.  Repealing that law, as Democrats are demanding, would jack up taxes on the lopsided majority of the electorate.  Joe Biden got in on the act, falsely claiming that tax reform merely benefited the rich and corporations, earning himself Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post's fact checker:

“There’s a $2 trillion tax cut last year. Did you feel it? Did you get anything from it? Of course not. Of course not. All of it went to folks at the top and corporations.”

"That's simply wrong," the Post concludes.  Indeed it is, and by agitating for repeal, Democrats run the political risk of being accurately painted as middle class tax-raisers.  That would be the literal consequence of their preferred policy outcome.  Finally, since we're on the subject of Trump approval, I'll leave you with a progress report on perhaps his most important presidential legacy to date:


Here's Mitch McConnell talking up that progress, some of which he attributes to the "modest step" we analyzed last month:

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UPDATE - This one will make Trump happy, too: