CBS News released a poll last night after President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union Address. It showed that three in four Americans who watched last night approved of his speech.
Granted, viewership is generally higher among the party who holds the White House and last night was no exception, of those polled 42 percent identified as Republican, 25 percent as Democrat, and 33 percent as independent.
Among Republicans, 97 percent approved of the speech. 72 percent of independents approved and 43 percent of Democrats approved of the speech.
The polling number among independents is key. I noted last night that the optics of Democrats’ unwillingness to applaud for added jobs, low unemployment, growing investment by business in response to the tax cuts, and President Trump’s discussion of American values do not play with mainstream Americans. These polling numbers prove that. Prior to the speech, 88 percent of those polled said Democrats should wait until after the speech to respond.
65 percent said that his speech made them proud. 35 percent said it made them feel safe. 14 percent said it made them feel scared while 21 percent said it made them angry.
I noted last night that immigration was one of the only parts of his speech he got into specifics in terms of policy. Democrats in the chamber responded negatively. Viewers did not. CBS News says 72 percent of viewers say they favor his proposal. Prior to the speech, of those polled, only 61 percent did.
54 percent of viewers believe that President Trump should get credit for the economy a three percent increase from before the speech, while only 15 percent believed he deserves little or no credit for it which dropped a point among those polled before the speech.
81 percent believe President Trump was trying to unite the country. 54 percent believe his policies will help them while only 14 percent believe they would hurt them personally.
The proposal that received overwhelming bipartisan support was his infrastructure proposal of which 91 percent favored. 75 percent of viewers favored his national security ideas.
A CNN Poll, which they tried to negatively spin, showed that 70 percent of viewers had a positive response to his State of the Union Address while only 28 percent had a negative reaction which tracks with the CBS News poll. CNN focused on only 48 percent having a “very positive” view saying that poll number is the lowest it has been in the 20 years they have asked the question.
Ok, sure. 70 percent of viewers still had a positive response.
One has to be extremely partisan to say that his State of the Union Address was not a net positive for the administration and largely appealed to Americans who watched.
While I have concerns about some policy concerns stemming from his speech (like how is he going to pay for $1.2 trillion for infrastructure improvements) it is impossible for me to say this State of the Union Address wasn’t a success.