CNN Poll: Most Americans approve how Trump is handling his return to the White House

Most Americans expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%), and a majority approves of how he’s handling the presidential transition so far (55%), according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Most Americans expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%) and a majority approves of how he’s handling the presidential transition so far (55%), according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Trump won the presidency last month amid broad disapproval of President Joe Biden’s handling of the job and deeply negative feelings about the state of the country and the economy. Almost 7 in 10 Americans in the new poll think Trump will be able to bring change to the country (68%), though only about half of Americans (48%) say they think it will be change for the better. The findings suggest the president-elect has earned a honeymoon period with the public as he prepares to return to the White House after being voted out four years ago amid broadly negative approval ratings of his own. But the poll finds positive sentiment toward Trump often trails the level that greeted other recent incoming presidents, even when he outperforms his own previous transition numbers. The country’s mood appears to have lifted somewhat following Trump’s win, at least in part due to the type of shifting partisan sentiments often seen in the wake of elections where the presidency changes partisan hands. Most overall still say that things in the country are going badly (61%), but the share who say things are going “very badly” stands at just 15%, the lowest in CNN polling since May 2018. The 38% who say things in the country are going well is the highest since December 2021. That change has not come uniformly across party lines. Republicans have grown more positive about the state of the country post-election: 30% say things are going well now, up from 14% at the start of 2024 and higher than at any point during Biden’s time in office. Independents are also more bullish on the country’s direction: 43% say things are going well, 56% badly. That’s the largest share of independents to say things are going well since January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic began. Among Democrats, though, positive feelings are on the decline following their party’s loss of both the White House and control of the Senate in the November election, with just 40% saying things are going well now. That’s down from 62% at the start of 2024 and the worst since the summer of 2022, following a Supreme Court ruling which overturned Roe v. Wade and upended federal protections for abortion.