Amid a week of a burgeoning sex scandal and another round of Cabinet shuffles, President Trump’s popularity has surged to an 11-month high in a CNN poll.
According to the poll conducted by SSRS and released Monday, 42 percent of Americans approve of how Mr. Trump is handling his job, though he still has a higher disapproval rating (54 percent) as he has had for his entire presidency.
The seven-point increase since February is fueled by six-point increases in popularity among Republicans (74 percent to 80 percent) and independents (35 percent to 41 percent).
Mr. Trump’s strongest numbers on particular issues relate to his handling of the economy, the only one on which a greater share approves than disapproves (48 percent to 45 percent).
The numbers were collected during a tumultuous several-day period of repeated developments in the Stormy Daniels sex scandal.
People who believe accounts of illicit affairs made by Ms. Daniels and others vastly outnumber those who believe Mr. Trump’s claims of absolute innocence — 63 percent to 21 percent.
But the fact this occurred while Mr. Trump’s overall poll numbers improved suggests, as happened during Bill Clinton’s “Year of Monica,” that the public overall doesn’t care that much.
The poll surveyed 1,014 adults from Thursday to Sunday and has an error margin of 3.7 percentage points.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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