A new Monmouth University poll saw President Trump’s approval rating jump 10 percentage points (from 32% to 42%) over the last month. And the poll said that Democrats only held a 2-point advantage for the generic ballot for the House. Last month, Democrats had a 15-point generic lead.
The 32 percent approval rating Trump logged in the December survey was the lowest for any major poll since Trump was elected. According to the RealClearPolitics average, Trump is at 40.4 percent approval and 56.3 percent disapproval.
The jump in the Monmouth survey appears to be driven by voter attitudes toward the GOP’s tax reform overhaul.
Forty-four percent say they approve of the new law and 44 percent say they disapprove. That’s up big from December, when only 26 percent said they approved and disapproval was at 47 percent.
Republicans are increasingly confident that the tax bill will help them buffer the stiff political headwinds they face in the 2018 midterm elections. The tax cuts should begin working their way into individual paychecks in February and Republicans believe that voters will warm to the law if they find that they benefit personally from it.