Mood Of The Country

Let's launch into the trends that we're seeing on the approval and mood of the country. In general, we haven't seen a lot of changes over time on the overall approvals of the key political figures in this country. President Trump remained this month at 45% job approval, where he's been for the last, really, three months within a point, coming down from a bump when we had 3.2% growth in the economy at 48. But again, within a tight and narrow range, 55% disapproving of his job.But, if you look at it by what he's doing on the economy, 55% approval, down slightly from highs. Stimulating jobs, 55%, a majority but down slightly. Fighting terrorism, stable, 55. Immigration actually up a little at 47. Foreign affairs, 43. Administering the government, 44. Very little change on the pattern. The most interesting thing of course is the credit he gets on economy and terrorism. What about whether the country itself is on the right track or the wrong track? Despite the economic progress and satisfaction that the voters appear to have, they continue to say that the country itself is going in the wrong direction. 54% wrong direction, 37% right direction, down slightly, and 9% don't know. Is the economy on the right track or wrong track? Well, all of the recession talk that really occurred in the last couple of months brought down some of the most positive sentiment on the economy we've seen. 46% in this poll said wrong track, 43% said right track, after many months of people saying that the economy was more on the right track than the wrong track, going back to December when it previously dipped because of recession talk. So every time there's significant talk about a recession, the public is very sensitive to it, they pick up those cues and signals, and down goes satisfaction with the economy.If you look at how strong do you think the economy was, back in April that was at a record high 74%. That's lost eight points now down to 66%, 34% say that it's weak. So still two thirds say that it's strong, but you see the trend as there's more recession talk. Will this month's job figures, will the fact that unemployment stayed at 3.7%, will the fact that the stock market seems to be coming back reverse that this month? Remains to be seen, it remains high, but is weakening.What about your personal financial situation? Just as well off, 36. Improving, 33. Getting worse, 26. Pretty big jump from 21 to 26, that's a five-point move. So, you see some deterioration in these economic indicators as you look at the poll. GOP is approval is 41%. It's low was 28% on November of '17, since we've been polling. 41% shows very little change. 59% disapprove. The Democrats are at 43% approve, they've been trending down. They got up at the midterms up to 46% approve, they've now lost three points. Just important to note that the country does not approve of the president, does not approve of the Democrats, and does not approve of the Republicans. And therefore, the swing voters in the country right now don't approve of either major party or the president.Okay, so what's the most important issue facing the country? Well, immigration number one, 40%. This is a pretty significant jump over time, when it was barely registering. Healthcare, which had been the number one issue, 33. Guns also has been rising as an issue at 27. Jobs and the economy at 25. Terrorism, 23. Environment/climate change, 22. National deficit, 17. Crime and drugs, 13. So you can see that each of the parties has been driving issues of concern in the news and that, in fact, those most important issues have changed pretty significantly. When you look at what do voters want from Democrats, they want Democrats to address the status of undocumented immigrants, 16%. That's the number one thing they're looking to Democrats to get moving and get some legislation that addresses these issues.

Interested in Learning More?

Harvard Harris Poll

Listen to More Episodes

Twitter