President Donald Trump entered the New Year on a triumphant note with the highest approval rating he’s enjoyed in six months after a successful December marked by the passage of tax reform legislation.

At the beginning of December, Gallup found the president’s approval rating resided at a mere 33 percent. But Trump clinched a 40 percent approval rating at the end of Gallup’s final three-day presidential polling average.

The last time Trump reached 40 percent occurred back in September. Before that month, July was the last time the president enjoyed an approval rating of 40 percent.

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The uptick in Trump’s rating occurred after Congress passed its historic tax system overhaul in late December — one of the president’s key campaign promises. In the aftermath of the tax bill’s passage, many companies across the nation responded by awarding bonuses and pay raises to their employees.

“The ambitious agenda of President Trump that helped fuel his election over a year ago will continue,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

“You saw how strong December was. I think in Washington the tradition is not to work very hard in August or December. This president has reversed that, and with the help of the Congress passed some very meaningful legislation late in the game,” Conway added.

In Gallup’s mid-March polling results, Trump enjoyed his highest approval rating since his inauguration at 45 percent. Since then, the president received ratings mostly in the mid to high 30s.

Gallup isn’t the only poll that indicated a marked improvement in the president’s approval ratings over the last few days of 2017. Rasmussen Reports made waves on December 28 when its presidential tracking poll found Trump with a 46 percent year-end approval rating — rivaling former President Barack Obama’s approval rating at the end of his first year in office.

“While the Fake News loves to talk about my so-called low approval rating, @foxandfriends just showed that my rating on Dec. 28, 2017, was approximately the same as President Obama on Dec. 28, 2009, which was 47% … and this despite massive negative Trump coverage & Russia hoax!” Trump tweeted on December 29, referring to Fox News’ report on the Rasmussen poll.

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The segment Trump to which pointed was an interview on “Fox & Friends” with Beverly Hallberg, president of the District Media Group and a fellow at The Heritage Foundation, discussing the Rasmussen poll.

Related: Tax Reform Win May Propel Trump — Mr. ‘Bomb-Thrower-in-Chief’ — to 2018 Win

“When you look at this poll, it kind of reinforces what we have known about what Donald Trump would refer to as the ‘fake news,’ taking a poll like this and still having the narrative that he is not doing well,” Hallberg said, noting that the passage of tax reform late in the year was “huge for his presidency.”

“Also, when you look at some of the media coverage, whether it’s ABC’s Brian Ross, who is now suspended for his incorrect story about the connection with the former national security adviser in Finland, or even CNN having to retract some stories as well, you see that Donald Trump really has ended on a high note,” she added.

As a side note, Gallup also announced on Wednesday that it’s discontinuing its daily tracking of presidential approval ratings — part of cutbacks in the company’s operations. “Gallup remains committed to tracking presidential approval using probability-based, telephone interviewing, but is reducing the sample size from 3,500 to 1,500 U.S. adults per week,” the company said in a statement. “As a result, Gallup will aggregate and report presidential job approval each week, rather than daily, beginning on January 8 at 1 p.m. ET.”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage and article images, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)