Trump Approval Ratings: Is The President Gaining Ground Despite Russia Investigation?

Since assuming office in January, President Trump has consistently had the lowest approval ratings for any president in history. On Friday, however, the president and his administration got some good news from the latest poll from Rassmussen Reports that showed the president breaking even at 50 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval, his highest approval rating in a while.

Trump took notice of the poll on Friday, tweeting about it with celebratory "Great news!"

The numbers are a vast improvement over other recent polls that have shown the president's approval in the upper 30s and disapproval ratings verging on 60 percent.

So far, this poll is an outlier poll, as it's the only recent polls to show the president getting more than 45 percent approval, and one of the only polls to show the president above 40 percent approval. Last week the same poll taken showed the president at 46 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval.

READ: Trump Approval Ratings: After James Comey Hearing, Is President Dropping To New Low?

Rassmussen Reports' poll was taken between June 13 and June 15, and it notes that is "the first time the president’s overall approval rating has hit the 50% mark since late April" with the highest rating being approval being 59 percent in late January shortly after he took office, and as low of 42 percent in early April. These statistics only include numbers taken from Rassmussen polls, which tend to lean in favor of conservatives.

The report also indicates that 31 percent of responders strongly approve of the way Trump is performing and 42 percent who strongly disapprove. Harry Enten, from the data-driven website FiveThirtyEight, referenced "The Simpsons" when touching on the hypothetical reaction from the Trump aide who delivered the poll to the president.

Other polls have been less favorable, but also shows the president's approval going in an upward direction. In a Gallup Poll taken during the same time period, Trump also showed a small uptick from last week with the president receiving a 38 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval rating. That's one point higher approval than last week. The numbers are almost identical to the Ipsos report, which showed 39 percent approval — up two percent from last week — and 57 percent disapproval.

READ: Most Americans Disapprove Of Trump's Performance As His Approval Rating Hits 35 Percent

In the last week, the news for Trump has not been any better or worse than in a prior week. Trump did have a brief respite from bad press surrounding the ongoing investigation into his campaign's possible collusion with the Russian government during the 2016 election when a gunman shot Republican Rep. Steve Scalice as he was practicing for a congressional baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia.

On RealClearPolitics poll aggregator for "Trump's Favorability" and "Direction of the Country," Trump also showed the slightest uptick. His favorability is at 40.4 percent — up from 40.2 percent last week — and his unfavorability is at 54.6 percent — also a slight increase from 54.2 from last week. The good news also included the polls about the direction of the country. An average of 34.8 percent of Americans think the country is moving in the right direction — up 0.5 percent, while 56.8 percent think the country is going in the wrong direction — down a full percentile from last week.