Tracking Trump - Direction of the Country for August 4th:
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: 29%
- Wrong Track: 60%
- Net Negative: -31%
And today:
- Right Direction: 29.3%
- Wrong Track: 59.7%
- Net Negative: -30.4%
Change: -1.3% since Inauguration Day & +.6% from a week ago
Well, this is the closest thing to a bright spot for the Trump administration this week. Unlike President Trump's approval rating that plummeted to a new low this week, we actually are a bit more optimistic about the direction of the country against this time last week. This does mark just the 3rd week of the Trump administration in which we are more pessimistic about our future than we were under the Obama administration however... This remains highly predictable. Rather than the national conversation being about the successful repeal of Obamacare, it's about the Republicans failing to pass it and various other issues/controversies.
That being said, on the note of "it" being about "the economy stupid"...there is plenty of room for optimism. 54% of adults have stock market based investments. With the markets having continued to set a series of new highs, and economic growth checking in at a respectable 2.6% most recently, there is room for growth on this subject. If Congress ever get it's butt in gear there's a ton of potential (in the economy and our view of the direction of our country).