According to a new CNN poll, 55% of Americans approve of how President-elect Donald Trump is handling the presidential transition and 54% expect him to do a good job when he returns to the Oval Office on Jan. 20.
Trump won the 2024 presidential election last month amid widespread negativity about the state of the economy and the direction of the country. While the poll found that nearly 70% of Americans think Trump will bring change to the country, only 48% said they think that change will be positive.
According to the survey, nearly three-quarters of Americans say they're following news about the Trump transition at least somewhat closely, with just 7% saying they are not following it closely at all.
At 55%, the current approval rating for Trump's handling of the transition is notably higher than in 2016, when it was 46%. The poll found that disapproval has remained at 45%.
The national mood seems to have brightened somewhat after Trump's win, which can be at least partly attributed to shifting partisan sentiments that often accompany elections in which the presidency changes political parties.
According to the poll, 61% still say that things are going badly in the country, but just 15% now say things are going "very badly," the lowest since May 2018. Conversely, the 38% who say things are going well is the largest share since December 2021.
Republicans and independents were more likely than Democrats to express optimism about the state of the country after the election. According to the survey, 30% of Republicans say things are going well now, up from 14% at the beginning of the year and higher than at any point during Biden's term. Among independents, 43% say things are going well now, while 56% say they're going badly, the largest share of independents to say things are going well since January 2020.
Positive feelings among Democrats took a downturn after their party's loss of the White House and control of Congress in the Nov. 5 election, with just four in 10 saying things are going well now. That's a 22-point drop from the beginning of 2024 and the lowest since the summer of 2022, after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and abolished federal abortion protections.
As they look ahead to Trump's second term, the poll found that Americans' emotional reactions are mixed, with 52% expressing a positive feeling and 48% expressing a negative one; 29% said they are afraid, while 19% say they are enthusiastic about a second Trump presidency.
The poll was conducted Dec. 5-8 and surveyed 1,011 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 3.8 percentage points.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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