Americans' approval of President Donald Trump's handling of the economy is at the highest point of his presidency, hitting 56% in a recent Gallup poll.
Trump's rating for handling the economy also is the highest of his approval ratings on any of 14 domestic and foreign issues tested in the latest Gallup poll.
Americans' approval of his handling of unemployment is nearly as high, at 54%, Gallup said.
The poll, conducted Feb. 12-28, found Trump's only other approval rating above the 50% mark was his handling of the situation with North Korea.
Americans' assessments of the national economy have been mostly positive since Trump took office and his handling of it has been a relative strength for his public image. With the unemployment rate at 4% in January and the stock market performing better than it had been in December and January, Americans' approval of Trump's handling of the economy rose four points since early February.
Gallup has asked Americans to assess presidents' handling of the economy with some regularity beginning with Ronald Reagan's presidency. Bill Clinton had the record-high economic approval rating of 81% in 1999. The elder Bush had the record-low of 17% in 1992. The average rating is 43%, below both of Trump's February readings. In fact, Trump's approval on the economy has not fallen below 45% throughout his presidency.
The president's greatest strength in the views of Americans remains his handling of the economy, although his overall approval rating lags far behind it. Americans' ratings of his handling of the economy and unemployment outpace 12 other issues tested in the latest Gallup poll, and at 56%, his rating on the economy is the highest of his presidency, up four percentage points from earlier this month.
Trump also enjoyed increased approval on the situation with North Korea in the latest poll, but the poll concluded just as the denuclearization talks ended without a signed agreement, and it is unclear what effect that will have on public evaluations in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Manufacturers said big and small companies are overwhelmingly optimistic about future growth, The Washington Examiner reported.
"The nation’s top manufacturers have for the ninth consecutive quarter given the Trump economy a thumbs up, setting record industry optimism of the economy and predicting positive growth unseen during the Obama administration," the Examiner said.
The survey said that 89 percent of manufacturers have a positive outlook for their companies. And 4.4 percent expect growth in their industries.
“Clearly, manufacturers remain very optimistic about business conditions overall. This is driven in no small part by the boost in confidence experienced since the end of 2016 with the expectation (and later, impact) of pro-growth federal policies like tax reform and regulatory certainty. Tax reform in particular helped many manufacturers invest more in hiring, compensation and their communities,” said the survey analysis.
For his part, Trump commonly takes to Twitter to tout his economic accomplishments.
"Our economy is better than it has been in many decades. Businesses are coming back to America like never before. Chrysler, as an example, is leaving Mexico and coming back to the USA. Unemployment is nearing record lows. We are on the right track!" he recently wrote.
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