Trump's Trials - Poll: Majorities say state of the union is not strong, & Trump is rushing change

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Majorities say the state of the union is not strong, that the country is headed in the wrong direction and President Trump is rushing to make changes without considering their impact, a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds.Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. Unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories

like the one you are about to hear right after this. I'm Michelle Martin. 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 Hey, good morning, Michelle. Michelle Matz So a technical detail for the nerds, you know, 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 US? 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 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 of 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. OK, so let's talk for a minute about one of Trump's biggest initiatives, DOJ, 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?

Yeah. Well, number one, people think that Trump's moving too fast in making these changes. They think that he's doing it without considering their impact. 56% said that, including again, two thirds of independents. Republicans, on the other hand, approve and think that the changes are necessary. DOJ itself is not very popular. That's the informal 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. I'm not sure views of Musk can go much lower because he does have a lot of Republican support. This poll also took the country's temperature on foreign policy and the economy. So what did you find there? Well the economy and prices were big reasons obviously that Trump won, but almost six in ten in this survey think that prices are going to go up in the next six months. Only about four in ten 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 US 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 Zelensky. 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. You know, just you just mentioned this. Look, it is still early and a lot has already gone on So what could all this mean politically? Well, obviously Trump is barred from running again So it's down ballot 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. That is NPR Senior Political Editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you. You're welcome. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down

the day's biggest political news, with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.