Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country for January 26th
Bottom Line: For years, despite generally favorable approval ratings for President Obama, we'd collectively been unhappy with the overall direction of our country. In the first year of the Trump Presidency we've seen the scenario reversed.
Where we stood on Inauguration Day:
Right Direction: 30%
Wrong Track: 59%
Net: -29%
Last Week:
Right Direction: 36%
Wrong Track: 54%
Net: -18%
And Today:
Right Direction: 35%
Wrong Track: 55%
Net: -20%
Change: +9% under Trump & -2% from last week
For months in the weekly look at President Trump's approval rating I've broken out the difference in Trump's approval rating based on the level of political engagement. Simply put, the more engaged someone is the higher the President's approval rating. We're also seeing that show up in the direction of the country questions. Consider...
On the question of whether the country is heading in the right direction...
With adult only samples: 30%
With Registered voters: 36%
With Likely voters: 39%
The country is generally about 2% less optimistic than a week ago though and we're lower for the second consecutive week. The initial sugar high from the impact of tax reform to start the year seems to have given way to a bit more negativity. We continue to see a huge spread among the most engaged and informed and the least. All in all, we have seen optimism wane a bit over the past two weeks as we're 4 points but when you factor in the partial government shutdown in the mix that doesn't seem so significant.
What's next? While February 8th is the new deadline for a budget deal - with a potential DACA/wall deal looming as a possibility as well... I suspect we might seem some movement once the impact of tax reform begins to hit paychecks over the next two weeks. That's the yet-to-be seen positive catalyst for the average person and economy.