The nation continues to warm to President-elect Donald Trump, according to a national poll that determined more than half of American voters now view Trump favorably.
The Rasmussen Reports survey, conducted on Dec. 22 and released Dec. 27, found that 51 percent of likely voters in the U.S. view Trump in a positive light, including 29 percent who reported very favorable opinions of him. Trump’s unfavorability numbers still remain strong, however, with 47 percent of responders reporting negative opinions of him, including 36 percent who reported very unfavorable views.
Opinions of the president-elect have markedly improved since before he won the election.
In June, before the Republicans officially nominated Trump as their candidate for president, the same poll found that he had a 61 percent unfavorability score, with 48 percent viewing him very unfavorably. At the time, only 37 percent viewed him favorably, with 16 percent viewing him very favorably.
Despite Trump’s improving image, most Americans have reservations about the next four years under the business mogul, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Dec. 19. In that survey, 54 percent of adults said they were either uncertain (25 percent), pessimistic (25 percent), or worried (29 percent) about Trump’s presidency, while 45 percent said they were either optimistic and confident (22 percent) or satisfied and hopeful (23 percent).
“Usually elections settle arguments and the nation comes together, at least in the short term,” said Fred Yang, a Democratic pollster for Hart Research Associates, according to NBC News. “Today, hard feelings persist on both sides of the partisan divide. It’s as if the 2016 campaign has never ended.”
Indeed, many Americans were unhappy with how the 2016 year went in general, with 33 percent telling an Associated Press-Times Square Alliance poll that things for the country got generally worse. Only 18 percent said in the same poll that the country improved over the year, while 47 percent said it did not get better or worse since 2015. However, 55 percent did say they were optimistic about 2017 and believed it would get better.
Sources: Rasmussen Reports (2), NBC News, Associated Press / Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr