Americans are broadly pessimistic about the country's direction under the leadership of Donald Trump, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The AP writes:
Just three in 10 Americans said the United States is heading in the right direction, and 52 percent said the country is worse off since Trump became president — worrisome signs both for the White House and Republicans heading into a midterm election year where control of Congress will be at stake.
Along with the 23 percent who think Trump has kept his promises, another 30 percent think he has tried and failed and 45 percent think he hasn’t kept them at all.
In a second AP-NORC poll conducted this month, Trump’s job approval rating sits at just 32 percent, making him the least popular first-year president on record. A quarter of Republicans say they’re among those who disapprove of the president.
Even among Republicans, only 50 percent believe Trump has made good on the pledges he made on the campaign trail.
And check out how the Trump's numbers compare to President Obama.
Just 25 percent of Americans think the country is better off since Trump took office — and only 20 percent say they personally are doing better.
By contrast, an AP-NORC poll conducted a year ago found that Americans were more likely to think the country had become better off over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency than worse off, 46 percent to 33 percent.
On the bright side, the national news is so dismal that Americans seem more invested in the localities where they live.
The deep-seated pessimism about the president and national politics doesn’t extend to local communities. Overall, about half of Americans said they feel optimistic about their local communities. And that feeling is shared across the political spectrum: 55 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans feel optimistic about the way things are going locally