65% of Americans confident in Trump's ability to handle the economy: CNN poll

A new poll from CNN conducted by SSRS has found that the majority of Americans approve of the way President-elect Donald Trump has been managing the presidential transition, 55 percent, and expect him to perform well when he returns to the White House next month, 54 percent. The findings indicate that Trump has earned an initial warm reception with the public after being voted out of the White House four years ago. It was recently announced that he has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year."

Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe that Trump will be able to effect change in the country, 68 percent. However, only 48 percent of Americans believe that the change will be beneficial, according to the poll. 65 percent of respondents said that they had confidence in Trump’s ability to deal with the economy, 62 percent had confidence in his ability to handle the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, and 60 percent had confidence in Trump’s ability to handle immigration policy.

Trump's victory seems to have improved the nation's mood slightly, at least in part because of the kind of partisan sentiment shifts that are frequently observed after elections in which the presidency is passed from one party to another, CNN reported. Overall, 61 percent of respondents still believe that things are going badly in the nation, with 15 percent of this group saying that things are going "very badly." This is the lowest in CNN polling since May of 2018. To compare, 38 percent of respondents believe things are going well in the nation.

This shift hasn't happened evenly across political parties. Following the election, Republicans' perceptions of the nation's current state improved: 30 percent feel things are going well today, up from 14 percent at the beginning of 2024 and higher than any other time during Biden's administration. Additionally, independents are more optimistic about the future of the nation: 43 percent believe it is doing well, while 56 percent believe it is going poorly. That is the highest percentage of independents who feel the country is doing well since Jan. 2020.

However, since their party lost both the White House and Senate control in the November election, Democrats' optimism has been waning, with only 40 percent stating that things are going well in the US at the moment. That is the lowest percentage since the summer of 2022 after SCOTUS reversed Roe. V Wade, and is down from 62 percent at the beginning of 2024, according to data.

The public's perception of Trump's administration is similar to that of November 2016. As of current, 48 percent believe he will bring positive change, compared to 43 percent in November 2016. The change is a result of the increased expectations of certain traditionally Democratic-leaning groups, among which Trump acquired support in the general election last month. In comparison to Nov. 2016, 46 percent of women anticipate that Trump will effect positive change, a 10 percent increase. Additionally, 44 percent of individuals under the age of 45 and 37 percent of people of color anticipate a positive change. These brackets saw an 8 and 11-point increase, respectively.

SSRS conducted the CNN Poll from December 5 to 8 and surveyed 1,011 randomly selected respondents nationwide. The margin of sampling error is 3.8 percentage points.