|
How large is the population of Americans who don’t like or approve of President Donald Trump but are low-key happy he’s in the White House? Mr. Trump’s polling is lousy—not as lousy as George W. Bush’s at this stage of a second term, but more lousy than Barack Obama’s, according to
RealClearPolitics. Yet despite underwater approval ratings and what often appears to be—and is always reported as—chaotic management of the executive branch, Mr. Trump’s years in office seem to coincide with a more relaxed citizenry. Lydia Saad reports for Gallup today on survey data across a range of national issues from the economy to the environment and from health care to homelessness: Americans’ concerns about national issues have generally declined from a year ago. The average share worried a great
deal across the 16 issues fell to 43% this year, down from 46% in March 2025. This is the lowest average concern Gallup has found since 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting, when the average reached a record low of 38% in the trend originating in 2001. After consuming a typical American media diet, would you ever guess that the moment in the past quarter-century when Americans worried least about major national issues occurred with Donald Trump in the Oval Office? We should offer the usual caveat that public opinion polling is an inexact science, if it’s even a science. Still, it’s notable when the venerable Gallup organization comes out with a finding so completely at odds with mainstream media reportage. In any case, after that historic chill vibe during the first Trump term, Gallup is now finding in the second year of a Trump second term that Americans are worrying less about national issues than they did in any year of the Biden presidency.
|
