Nancy Pelosi approval rating has doubled in wake of Trump government shutdown, poll finds

Nancy Pelosi’s approval rating has doubled since the start of the US government shutdown, according to a new poll.

The Democratic House speaker, who has been instrumental in blocking Donald Trump’s demands for $5.7bn border wall funding, is seen to be doing a good job by 34 per cent of voters, according to Monmouth University survey.

In November 2018, a month before the shutdown, her approval rating was 17 per cent – a figure that had remained static since July the previous year. The earlier polls were conducted when Ms Pelosi was minority House leader.

While the latest Monmouth poll suggests the Democrat’s stubborn opposition to Mr Trump has increased her popularity, Ms Pelosi’s disapproval rating has also grown from 38 per cent in November to 45 per cent this month.

Mr Trump’s approval rating remains higher, at 41 per cent, although it has fallen two percentage points since November. His disapproval rating climbed from 49 per cent to 54 per cent in the same period.

Voters were surveyed between 25 January, the day the president called an end to the longest shutdown in US history, and 27 January.

Separate poll findings also published this week paint a different picture to Monmouth’s survey.

Ms Pelosi had a 28 per cent approval rating in separate poll commissioned by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. Her disapproval rating was 47 per cent, up six percentage points on last month.

The survey – conducted before the end of the shutdown – put Mr Trump’s approval rating at 43 per cent and disapproval at 54 per cent.

Fifty-five per cent of Americans blame the president for the 35-day shutdown which left 800,000 federal workers unpaid, according to a Rasmussan Reports survey published last week. Forty per cent blamed congressional Democrats.