84 reasons it won’t be déjà vu . . .

WASHINGTON— After a week like this, you might be thinking Donald Trump is destined to end up like Richard Nixon — an ex-president sooner rather than later.

Be warned, there’s one number that makes that outcome unlikely: 84 per cent. That’s Trump’s job approval rating among Republicans, according to Gallup’s weekly polling average. Here’s why it’s so important. A majority of Americans disagreed with the firing of FBI director James Comey — the decision that set off this raucous week — with 54 per cent saying that Comey’s termination was inappropriate, according to a poll by NBC and SurveyMonkey.

But those figures break down starkly by party: More than 80 per cent of Democrats and a majority of independents think that the move was inappropriate — but more than three-quarters of Republicans are fine with it.

On the question of whether the Trump campaign-Russia allega- tions behind all this are serious, there’s a similar split. Republicans think it’s a distraction. Everyone else disagrees.

That pattern — Republicans enthusiastic, independents skeptical and Democrats furious — is consistent across any Trump question. No president has been more polarizing in Gallup’s history of approval polling, and no president has been viewed less positively at this point in his first term.

The key point for the impeachment question is that overwhelming Republican support for Trump — the 84 per cent — overlaps with the concerns of allies on Capitol Hill.

If there is to be an independent investigation into the Trump-Russia question, either Trump needs to appoint someone — unlikely — or Hill Republicans have to create a robust independent body to investigate and bring pressure against Trump. Those are the only options, and all come down to the will of Trump or members of his party.

Impeachment is the same deal: A Republican Congress needs to move that process forward.