Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country for February 23rd
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 saw the scenario reversed (with a more optimistic country but lower approval of President Trump).
Where we stood on Inauguration Day:
Right Direction: 30%
Wrong Track: 59%
Net: -29%
Last Week:
Right Direction: 38%
Wrong Track: 53%
Net: -15%
And Today:
Right Direction: 36%
Wrong Track: 55%
Net: -19%
Change: +10% under Trump & -4% from last week
It's likely safe to say that the Parkland shooting has taken its toll on our collective optimism over the past week. The four-point decline is the biggest one-week dip so far in 2018. As recently as last week, prior to the shooting, our view of the direction of the country was the third highest it'd been over the previous ten years.
On another note...For months in the weekly look at President Trump's approval rating I've broken out the difference in Trump's approval 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 question. Consider...
On the question of whether the country is heading in the right direction...
With adult only samples: 31%
With Registered voters: 36%
With Likely voters: 40%
That's a remarkably large spread – the largest I've ever seen on this topic and once again demonstrates the differences in our views of the country based on the level of one's political information and engagement.