A month ago my occasional update of President Donald Trump’s approval ratings was headlined “Trump approval numbers drifting upward.” They still are, and more so.

It’s still possible to say that the current incumbent’s approval numbers are not good. They are “under water,” meaning more disapprovers than approvers, but not by as much as they have been. For most of his presidency, Trump’s approval numbers have been under water by more than 10 points and almost 20 at their worst. Now the gap is less than 10.

Trump’s approval numbers are still worse than Barack Obama’s at the same stage of his first term, but not by much.

Trump’s current approval numbers, 43 percent approval/ 52 percent disapproval, are now the best they have been since the first weeks of his term, and they have been improving – slowly but fairly steadily – since early December of 2017, according to HuffPost’s tracker, which averages many approval polls. According to Gallup, which I also refer to regularly, his current numbers – 43 percent approval; 52 percent disapproval — are the best he has registered since March of 2017.

I won’t attempt to analyze the various possible reasons for the improvement. And a president with a negative net approval of minus nine percentage points is not in good shape. But, to repeat, compared only with his own track record, which has been historically awful, his standing with the public is the best it has been in a long time.

The Gallup tracker is viewable here.

The trendline of the HuffPost’s average of many approval polls is here.