Poll: Majorities say state of the union is not strong, and Trump is rushing change
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress tomorrow. It typically starts with something along the lines of the State of the Union is strong, but Americans are saying it isn't. That is one finding from the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll out today. Joining us to tell us more about it is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, good morning.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So a technical detail for the nerds, you know?
MONTANARO: (Laughter).
MARTIN: A president's first address to a joint session of Congress is not technically called a State of the Union address, even though it does feel like one. All right. So having said that, what is the mood overall in the U.S.?
MONTANARO: Well, the big picture here is that Trump starts with a 45% approval rating, which is higher than when he left office but lower than for any president in the last 80 years, except for the very similar rating he got when he came into office in 2017. A slim majority, 53%, says the state of the union is not strong. And a similar 54% say the country is off on the wrong track.
Now, those numbers are actually improvements from the last couple of years, but it's mainly due to enthusiasm with Republicans, who, you know, like a lot of what Trump is doing. But three-quarters of Democrats and two-thirds of independents said the country is not doing well and are largely not supportive of many of the things Trump is trying to do. There are real warning signs in this survey for Republican elected officials with how independents are viewing things. And we know they often decide elections.
MARTIN: OK. So let's talk for a minute about one of Trump's biggest initiatives, DOGE, which is working to cut the federal workforce. How are people viewing, first of all, like, how fast it's happening, and secondly, what's actually being done?
MONTANARO: Yeah. Well, No.1, people think that Trump's moving too fast in making these changes. They think that he's doing it without considering their impact. Fifty-six percent said that, including again two-thirds of independents. Republicans on the other hand approve and think that the changes are necessary. DOGE itself is not very popular. That's the informal, you know, advisory Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk. Just 39% have a favorable opinion of it. Musk himself gets the same rating, and that's unchanged from January. And I'm not sure views of Musk can go much lower because he does have a lot of Republican support.
MARTIN: This poll also took the country's temperature on foreign policy and the economy. So what did you find there?
MONTANARO: Well, the economy and prices were big reasons, obviously, that Trump won. But almost 6 in 10 in this survey think that prices are going to go up in the next six months. Only about 4 in 10 think Trump's approach will make the economy better. When it comes to foreign policy, just 44% think that Trump's approach is going to make things better. On Ukraine, two-thirds think that the U.S. is either not giving enough support or is giving about the right amount. We should say that this poll was conducted last week just before that contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On both the economy and foreign policy, independents again think Trump is making things worse by 20 points. And with all of what's happening in the past month, there's been a tremendous erosion of faith in the system of checks and balances in the country. Just 43% think it's working well, down 23 points from December.
MARTIN: You know, you just mentioned this. Look, it is still early, and a lot has already gone on. So what could all of this mean politically?
MONTANARO: Well, obviously, Trump is barred from running again. So it's downballot Republicans who are the ones who are likely to feel the success or fallout of this administration's policies in the next year and how voters feel about that. You know, Republican voters appear to be in lockstep with Trump. But this survey tells us there's not much beyond that for Trump. And if independents continue to disapprove and the strong Democratic opposition holds up, that really could spell trouble for Republicans in next year's midterms.
MARTIN: That is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you.
MONTANARO: You're welcome.
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