mr. trump's approval at a cringe-worthy 40%. by contrast, it's house speaker nancy pelosi who bested mr. trump in their showdown whose numbers are on the rise. above where they were before the shutdown. don't tell the president that one. >> i think that she was very rigid which i would expect, but i think she's very bad for our country. >> reporter: with democrats feeling emboldened, there's another battle looming over whether the president would authorize the release of special could counsel robert mueller's findings in the russia investigation. >> would you make the mueller report public because you say there's nothing in there? >> totally up to the attorney general. >> what do you want them to do? >> even the mueller report said it had nothing to do with the campaign. >> reporter: that's a strange response as the mueller report hasn't even been released. president has plenty of time to study up on the issue. the news site axios found the president has spent about 60% of his scheduled time in what's called executive time. the unstructured and largely unmonitored part of his day used for tweeting, watching tv and talking to advisers on the