Trump approval rating relatively unchanged in wake of Capitol rioting: NBC News poll

A poll released by NBC News on Sunday morning found that President Trump’s approval rating has remained relatively unchanged following deadly rioting by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

The new poll found that 43 percent of voters gave Trump a positive job approval rating, a result consistent with polling as recently as just before the November election. More than half of those surveyed — 55 percent — disapproved of Trump’s performance in office, however.

An overwhelming majority of Republicans — 87 percent — approved of Trump, a small drop from the 89 percent who said the same before the November election. Five percent of Democrats said in the new poll that they approved of Trump, as did 44 percent of independents.

Just five percent of Republicans who voted for Trump told pollsters they now regretted casting their ballots for him, while two-thirds said their feelings had not changed.

Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice when Congress voted to impeach him last week over his role in the siege at the Capitol. Ten Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in voting in favor of impeaching him.

More than half of those surveyed by NBC News — 58 percent — ranked Trump as “definitely worse than most” presidents or “not as good as most.” Forty percent said Trump was either “one of the very best” or “better than most” presidents.

The network noted that President-elect Joe Biden had an approval rating of 44 percent, while 40 percent responded negatively. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s rating was neutral, with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving. 

The NBC News poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from Jan. 10 to Jan. 13. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Another poll released by CNN on Sunday found that Trump’s approval ratings sank to the lowest they had ever been during his presidency, with 34 percent saying they approved of the president.