Poll: 50 percent of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling the transition

NEW YORK, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Half of Americans say they approve of the way President-elect Donald Trump is handling the transition and his preparations to take over the country's highest office, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has found.

The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Dec. 12-15. It has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they disapprove of Trump's actions.

By party, 82 percent of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing thus far, compared with 12 percent of Democrats. Fifty-three percent of independents supported his choices.

NBC News said in a press release Trump's approval score is significantly lower than current President Barack Obama's was in December 2008 -- which was 73 percent -- and Bill Clinton's in December 1992 -- which was 77 percent.

Former President George W. Bush's approval rating wasn't assessed in the December 2000 NBC/WSJ poll because it was conducted before the conclusion of the Florida recount, NBC said.