President-elect Donald Trump is riding high off his resounding November 5 electoral victory. He capped off his latest selection as TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year” with a visit to the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell on Thursday.
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And there’s been a perceptible shift in sentiment toward him, even among some who previously seemed dead-set against him. Whether that’s a genuine change of heart or simply a function of political expediency may be up for debate.
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And there’s still no shortage of people who will continue to oppose Trump and anyone remotely associated with him as long as they live. It’s almost as though Trump Derangement Syndrome has become an integral part of their personality.
But their numbers are dwindling, as witnessed by a rather stunning milestone Trump recently marked. For the first time since he announced his run for the presidency — in 2015 — Trump is above water in his approval rating.
Indeed, the RealClearPolitics graph demonstrates that reaching all the way back to July 2, 2015 (when his unfavorable rating notched a stunning 39.3 percent differential over his favorable rating), Trump has officially crossed those approval/disapproval streams for the very first time, as of December 6, 2024.
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As of December 11, he’s got a favorable rating of +2 percent, with 49.4 percent favorable versus 47.4 percent unfavorable. The closest he’s come to this previously was December 31, 2016 (-3.9 percent favorability) and April 25, 2022 (-4.6 percent favorability).
Meanwhile, outgoing President Joe Biden is laboring under a -16.5 percent favorability rating. His Job Approval as of November 6 sat at 41.1 percent. In comparison, Trump had a 45.9 percent approval at that point in his presidency, while Barack Obama had 50.1 percent, and George W. Bush had 51.5 percent approval.
There remain 38 days in Biden’s presidency, and, of course, a lot can happen in that span, but while the lamest of lame ducks limps across the finish line, his successor is poised to soar.