Poll: American Public Loved Trump's Speech

Leah Barkoukis | March 01, 2017 8:15 AM

Members of the media weren’t the only ones to praise President Trump’s speech Tuesday evening, the American public loved it as well.

According to a new CNN/ORC poll, 57 percent of those who watched the president’s first address to Congress had a very positive reaction.

Almost 7-in-10 who tuned in said Trump’s proposed policies will move the country in the right direction, while the same amount said they felt more optimistic about the direction the country was heading under Trump. Nearly two-thirds also said the commander in chief has the right priorities for the U.S.

On specific issues, Trump scored the highest marks for his proposed policies on the economy, with 72% saying those went in the right direction. Almost as many, 70%, said the same about his terrorism proposals. Slightly fewer, but still a majority, felt his policies on taxes (64%), immigration (62%) or health care (61%) were heading in the right direction.

Ideologically, about two-thirds saw Trump's speech as about right, while roughly on-quarter (26%) pegged it as too conservative. Just 8% said it wasn't conservative enough.

While the 57% who said they had a very positive reaction to Trump's speech outpaces the marks received by his predecessor for any of his recent State of the Union addresses, they fell below the reviews either Barack Obama or George W. Bush received for either of their initial addresses to Congress. In 2009, 68% had a very positive reaction to Obama, while 66% gave Bush very positive reviews in 2001. Likewise, the 69% of speech-watchers who thought Trump's policies would move the nation in the right direction lagged behind the share who felt that way about Obama's or Bush's policies in the first year, and ranks around their low-marks on this score. Obama's low-mark on that score was 68% last year and his high was 88% in 2009. Bush topped out at 91% in 2002 and hit a low mark of 67% in the final year of his presidency.