Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country for September 1st:
Bottom Line: This Friday feature is designed for political junkies. For years, despite generally favorable approval ratings for President Obama, we'd collectively been unhappy with the overall direction of our country. In the early months of the Trump Presidency we had seen a bit of a shift with a less popular President but a bit more optimistic country generally. At one point earlier this year we were nearly 20% more optimistic than under the Obama administration but that all changed just over a month ago...
Here's where we stood on Inauguration Day:
Right Direction: 30%
Wrong Track: 59.1%
Net Negative: -29.1%
Last week:
Right Direction: 25%
Wrong Track: 64%
Net Negative: -39%
And today:
Right Direction: 25.5%
Wrong Track: 63.5%
Net Negative: -38%
Change: -8.9% since Inauguration Day & +1% from a week ago
On the bright side we're 1% more optimistic than a week ago😊. In reality though the country is now the least optimistic it's been since July of 2016 and still significantly more pessimistic than we were at the end of the Obama era. It is notable that despite record stock prices, a 3% growth economy, a solid jobs market we're remaining this negative in our view of things. It's clearly fallout and frustration from drama in Washington absent of healthcare and tax reform to date.
Until next week...