Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country 4-28-17:
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're seeing a bit of a shift with a less popular President but a bit more optimistic country generally.
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: 35.5%
- Wrong Track: 54%
- Net Negative: -18.5%
And today:
- Right Direction: 34.8%
- Wrong Track: 55.6%
- Net Negative: -20.8%
Change: +8.3% since Inauguration Day & -2.3% vs last week
It's notable that while we're more optimistic than we were prior to the start of the Trump administration - we are back at the lowest levels on the direction of the country question that we've seen since early February. It's clear that movement on the domestic agenda is needed in order for Americans to sustain higher levels of optimism going forward.
This is an important window of time with the debt ceiling/budget debate, healthcare reform revival and tax reform blueprint all being on the table. The natives are restless and want better policy out of Washington - not just the talk. You get the sense that Congressional Republicans and the President understand this. So will they get the job done?
Until next week...