President Trump’s popularity is at a record high as the largest share of Americans in decades believe the country is on the right track, according to new polling data.
While the president’s current net-favorable rating is in the negatives — at -4 percentage — he is making steady progress in the right direction. It’s far better than the -10 point rating he had in March 2017 and the -7 point rating Americans gave him after the November election, according to aggregate polling compiled by CNN analyst Harry Enten.
Enten gave the network’s lefty viewers a “reality check” this week with the new poll numbers, showing Trump has a high favorability rating now than at any point in his first term.
“All we talk about is how unpopular Donald Trump is,” Enten began. “But in reality, he’s basically more popular than he was at any point in term number one and more popular than he was when he won the election back in November of 2024.”
“So when you compare Trump against himself, he’s actually closer to the apex than he is to the bottom of the trough,” the CNN analyst explained. “And of course, that’s so important because Donald Trump, historically speaking, has had his numbers underestimated.”
“I think it’s very important to compare [Trump] to himself, to understand that he’s actually more popular now than he was when he won, or certainly where he was at this point back in his first term.”
To further help viewers understand how popular Trump is at the moment, Enten broke out polls showing the percentage of Americans indicating that the country is on the right track.
The CNN analyst pointed to a recent Marist survey showing 45% of Americans indicating that America is on the right track – the second highest percentage that the pollster has measured since 2009 – and a NBC News poll finding 44% of Americans thinking the same – the highest since 2004.
“The bottom line is, the percentage of Americans who say we’re on the right track is through the roof,” Enten asserted.
“And if you were to compare it to when presidents have historically been re-elected, of course, Trump is not constitutionally eligible to run for re-election, but I think it sort of puts it in perspective, 42% of the country says the country is on the right track when the incumbent party is re-elected,” he added.
Enten noted that just before former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump, and Democrats lost their Senate majority, “only about 27% to 28% of the country said the country was on the right track.”
“The bottom line is, right now, a much higher percentage of the country says we’re on the right track.”
All this bodes well for congressional Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, according to Enten, who said “the generic congressional ballot” in 2026 polls thus far “looks a heck of a lot more like when Republicans win than when Democrats win.”
