Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country 4-14-17:
Bottom Line: This Friday feature is designed for political junkies who missed my Friday political series from the election cycle. For years, despite generally favorable approval ratings for President Obama, we've collectively been unhappy with the overall direction of our country. It's fair to say that President Trump is much more than just a new President. He intends to lead the movement that led to election forward. How will the country respond?
In this entry I'll be tracking the overall view of the direction of the country led by President Trump.
Here's where we stood on Inauguration Day:
- Right Direction: 30%
- Wrong Track: 59.1%
- Net Negative: -29.1%
Last week's ratings:
- Right Direction: 36.6%
- Wrong Track: 54.6%
- Net Negative: -18%
And today:
- Right Direction: 35.3%
- Wrong Track: 54%
- Net Negative: -18.7%
Change: +10.4% since Inauguration Day & -.7% vs last week
The direction of the country question has reached a three week losing streak. Meaning that despite Americans still being an average of 10%+ more optimistic than they were on Inauguration Day, we have come off of the post-Inauguration highs (which were about 8% higher than where we are today). What's a bit odd is that President Trump's approval rating improved significantly this week and the direction of the country question hasn't followed the same path as of this update.
The big change in conversation over the past week has been how foreign policy has become the prominent issue in the wake of the Syrian airstrikes, Secretary Tillerson's meetings with Russia amid tense relations and the President's affirmation of NATO. Until the last week or so domestic issues had almost exclusively been driving the mood of the country. That's likely to reassert itself by the time that Congress returns to Washington in just over a week.
Until next week...