President Barack Obama’s job approval among Americans has ticked up to its highest point since almost three years ago, according Gallup’s weekly tracking poll.
Obama is closing the weekly average Thursday with a 50% approval rating, up from the 46% job approval he got on average last year. Overall, his average job approval of is 47% since he took office in 2009.
Despite the slight uptick in approval, Obama is no less a polarizing figure than he’s been throughout almost his entire term, according to the poll.
Among Democrats, Obama’s approval increased from an average of 81% last year to 87% last week, but his approval among Republicans stayed almost the same, inching up from 10% last year to 11% this week.
Obama got laughs during a joint press conference at the White House Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the U.S. President was asked about some Republicans blaming him for the rise of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
“I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries, and who they’re selecting for their primary is novel,” he said.
Obama said it was actually the Republican establishment and media who created an environment that a Trump candidacy could thrive in.
“Objectively, it’s fair to say that the Republican political elites, and many of the information outlets, social media, news outlets and television stations have been feeding the Republican base for the last seven years,” he said.