TRUMP'S POLL NUMBERS ARE IMPROVING, BUT... (updated)

President Trump's job approval numbers continue to improve, to the point where the gap between his approval and disapproval is only 2 points:



And yet, in a Fox News poll...

Former Vice President Joe Biden bests President Donald Trump by nine points in a 2020 ballot test....

In a head-to-head presidential matchup, Biden is up by 49-40 percent over Trump, a lead that is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. Another 11 percent would vote for someone else or are undecided. Last month, Biden was ahead by 49-41 percent....

In the matchup, Biden is the choice among liberals, non-whites, moderates, suburban women, and voters ages 65 and over.

Wait, it gets better.

... the former vice president has an eight-point edge in battleground states (48-40 percent).

However, Biden’s advantage grows to 25 points, 57-32 percent, in close counties (where Hillary Clinton and Trump were within 10 points in 2016).

In the same Fox poll, Trump has one of his best job approval ratings.



But Biden is kicking his butt.



This is the best news I've read all day.

*****

UPDATE: Trump's job approval numbers are up, but not by very much, as The Washington Post's Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent note:

The new Post/ABC News poll shows Trump’s approval rating in net-positive territory for the first time, at 48 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. Gallup puts him at 49 percent. The RealClearPolitics average puts him at 47 percent, while the FiveThirtyEight average pegs him at 46 percent....

In such extraordinary circumstances, the president’s approval would normally be shooting up....

When Lyndon B. Johnson took over after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, his approval rating was 78 percent, even though he hadn’t done anything yet. Likewise, Gerald Ford had a 71 percent approval upon taking office during Watergate; it didn’t fall until he pardoned Richard M. Nixon. (We’re using Gallup’s historical data.)

Before Iran took 52 Americans hostages, Jimmy Carter’s approval was at 32 percent. It quickly shot up more than 20 points after the hostages were taken, and it stayed there for a couple months....

And after 9/11, George W. Bush’s approval soared to 90 percent.

Trump's best poll, Gallup, has him at 49% approval, 45% disapproval. By contrast, in the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson's approval/disapproval shot up from 43%/46% to 55%/35% in less than a week, according to YouGov.




This was before Johnson tested positive for the coronavirus (the test results were announced yesterday).

So the citizens of the U.K. are rallying around their loutish, formerly restriction-averse, bizarre-haired head of state more than ours are.