President Trump’s approval rate among likely U.S. voters hit 50 percent on Monday, which puts him higher than former President Barack Obama’s score at the same point into his first term, according to a new poll.
One-third of all respondents “strongly approve” of the Republican leader’s job, according to the April 2 poll by conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports.
Exactly 49 percent are unhappy with Trump’s performance, including 38 percent who “strongly disapprove.”
Trump last hit 50 percent approval in the same poll on Feb. 27. He started out in the upper-50s following his inauguration Jan. 20, 2017, then dropped down to the 30s and 40s. He hit 51 percent last March and hit 50 percent a handful of times between then and now.
[Here are the states with the highest and lowest Trump approval ratings]
On April 2, 2010, Obama received a 46 percent approval rating and 53 percent disapproval rating.
Obama’s approval numbers were higher than Trump’s when comparing each of their first 12 months in office.
The telephone-based poll was conducted among 1,500 likely U.S. voters — 500 by telephone survey and 1,000 by online survey — and had a 2.5 percentage point margin of error.
