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Most people who watched President Donald Trump’s primetime address to a joint session of Congress had a positive opinion of what he spelled out in his speech, according to snap polls.
Trump has been moving at warp speed since his Jan. 20 inauguration, and he used his speech to deliver a full-throated defense of his avalanche of activity, while repeatedly targeting former President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats.
The speech, lasting more than 90 minutes, was the longest address to a joint session of Congress or a State of the Union address in 60 years.
WATCH TRUMP’S FULL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Vice President JD Vance, center, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), right, applaud behind him. (Win McNamee/Pool via REUTERS)
According to a CNN instant poll, nearly seven in 10 respondents viewed Trump’s speech as positive {44% said very positive and 25% said somewhat positive), while 31% offered that they had a negative reaction (15% somewhat negative and 16% very negative).
There was a similar response in a snap survey conducted for CBS News.
TOP FIVE MOMENTS FROM TRUMP’S PRIMETIME SPEECH
Instant polls of State of the Union addresses or speeches to joint sessions of Congress are often favorable to the presidents delivering those speeches. That is because speech-watchers represent a small portion of the public, and they are usually much more likely to be from the president’s own party, which is reflected in the poll results.
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/Pool via REUTERS)
The CNN survey included 431 respondents who watched Trump’s speech. Forty-four percent of those questioned described themselves as Republicans, 35% as independents or members of a third party, and just 21% said they were Democrats.
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CNN noted that 44% who had a very positive view of Trump’s speech is lower than the 57% who felt the same way in their instant poll of Trump’s address to Congress eight years ago, near the start of his first administration. Additionally, they pointed out that it was also four points lower than the 48% who gave Biden a big thumbs up in his initial address to Congress in 2021, at the start of his single term in the White House.
