Trump’s Approval in NBC Poll Holds Steady After Capitol Riot

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 12: U.S. President Donald Trump exits the White House to walk toward Marine One on the South Lawn on January 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. Following last week's deadly pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol, President Trump is making his first public appearance with a trip to the town of Alamo, Texas to view the construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s approval rating was little changed in an NBC News poll as he prepares to leave the White House after a second impeachment for the riot by his supporters inside the Capitol building.

Trump received a positive job approval rating of 43% in the Jan. 10-13 poll of 1,000 registered voters, including from 87% of Republicans. That’s barely changed from a 45% approval rating in late October, just before last year’s U.S. election, according to NBC. In the earlier poll, 89% of Republicans approved of Trump’s job performance.

With President-elect Joe Biden calling for an end to political divisiveness in the buildup to his inauguration on Wednesday, only 5% of Republican voters surveyed said they regret supporting Trump after the Capitol’s storming, while two-thirds said their feelings about him hadn’t changed. Only 11% of Republicans held Trump solely or mainly responsible for the protests that led to the riot, according to NBC.

“As we’ve seen over the course of his term, major event after major event does little to shake Trump’s standing with Republicans,” NBC quoted Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt as saying.

The poll suggests that 49% of the U.S. electorate ranks Trump as “worse than most” presidents, similar to the 48% who said the same of departing President George W. Bush in late 2008. Still, 40% say Trump is among “the very best” or better than most U.S. presidents.

By contrast, the Republican Party’s favorability rating declined to 32%, compared with 41% before election day in November, led by a decline among Republicans themselves, according to a CNN poll published Sunday.

The CNN survey showed Republicans about evenly split on whether the party should still treat Trump as its leader, with 47% favoring that stance and 48% saying the GOP should move on.

While many voters remain loyal, one Republican Party leader, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, said that once Trump departs, the GOP should return to its core message.

“We ought to get back to the conservative principles that have made our party the majority party and hopefully, it will move away from that personality-driven that’s led us to where we are right now,” Hutchinson said on “Fox News Sunday.”

The Jan. 9-14 poll of 1,003 adults from CNN has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The NBC poll’s margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.