Obama’s Approval Rating Rises Again

President Obama’s approval rating has jumped up yet again. Obama’s approval is now at 51 percent – its highest level since his second inauguration.

And this impressive climb could all be thanks to Donald Trump. The president has been seeing a steady rise in his approval numbers since the Republican presidential primaries got under way, and Trump became the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

According to Business Insider, Obama’s high approval rating may be a serious concern for the GOP.

“Why is it important?” NBC’s political analysts wrote. “Because it means that Obama will be an asset to Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail unlike he was in the 2014 midterms, when his approval rating was in the low 40s.”

“While it’s hard to pinpoint precisely why Obama’s approval rating has risen among Democrats recently, there are a number of plausible explanations,” Andrew Dugan and Frank Newport of Gallup wrote earlier this year. One explanation is that “the unusual status of the Republican primary race – exemplified in particular by frontrunner Donald Trump’s campaign style and rhetoric – may serve to make Obama look statesmanlike in comparison.”

Obama’s approval rating, which is historically comparable to Ronald Reagan’s during his final year in office, may be the ace in the deck that Clinton needs, reports The New York Times.

According to The Times, Reagan held a yearly Gallup poll average of 53 percent in 1988. That year, George Bush, his vice president, won the presidency. This victory marked the only time in post-war America that a departing president’s party won a third term in office.

Ari Fleischer, press secretary to George W. Bush, argues that Obama’s approval rating is an issue for the GOP, reports Business Insider. “Certainly, going into an election spring and summer, it’s better to have an incumbent president increasingly popular rather than less popular if you’re the incumbent party”. 

Sources: Business Insider, The New York Times / Photo credit: White House/Instagram