Trump favorability rises 5 points in past month: Gallup

Former President Trump’s favorability rating has risen by 5 percentage points in the past month, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The Gallup poll shows Trump’s favorability has bounced back in September, returning to June levels — before President Biden withdrew from the race. Roughly 46 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the GOP nominee in the latest survey, compared to 41 percent in August.

Harris, who rose to the top of the ticket after Biden stepped aside, saw a dip in her favorability — dropping from 47 percent to 44 percent in the recent poll.

Despite the fluctuation in favorability, the pollster suggests both White House candidates are underwater — Gallup found 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, slightly lower than Harris’s 54 percent.

Both party nominees are seemingly unfavorable among the majority of independents, but the former president has a nearly 10-point lead. About 44 percent of independents said they had a favorable view of Trump, while 35 percent said the same for the Democratic nominee, the poll found.

The pair have strong backing among their bases. Approximately 94 percent of Democrats had a favorable view of the vice president, while 91 percent of Republicans said the same about Trump, according to the survey.

With Election Day just 48 days away, the vice presidential nominees Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) are still relatively unknown to a portion of Americans. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans did not have an opinion about Vance (17 percent) or Walz (19 percent).

Among those who did know the Ohio senator, 47 percent viewed him as unfavorable while 36 gave him a more positive review. Walz had a narrower gap, with 41 percent viewing him in a favorable light compared to 40 percent who said the opposite, the survey found.

Both vice presidential picks have strong support within their party, but independents preferred Walz. About 37 percent of independents said they had a favorable view of him, while 30 percent backed Vance, the first-term senator, the poll found. 

Harris’s approval rating was the same as her favorability rating, sitting at 44 percent, marking a 3 point reduction from August. 

In The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling index, Trump has garnered a 44.1 percent favorability rating compared to 53.3 percent unfavorability. The same aggregate shows Harris with 49 percent favorability and 47.3 percent unfavorability.

The Gallup poll, conducted Sept. 3-15 among 1,007 Americans, has a margin of error of 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.