Trump’s Approval Rating Spikes, Voters Give Inauguration Speech High Marks

Voters give President Donald J. Trump high marks for his inauguration speech and widely approve of his job performance during the first week. The first PPD Tracking Poll conducted after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2017 finds President Trump’s approval rating stands at 57%, with 40% disapproving of his performance in office.

That includes 44% who “strong approve” and 33% who “strongly disapprove” of the president’s job performance.

A whopping 69% of likely voters said they had a “positive” reaction to the new president’s inauguration speech, with 53% saying they had a “very positive” reaction. Ninety-six (96%) percent of Republicans had at least a “somewhat positive” reaction to his address, while 71% of independents and a significant 42% of Democrats agreed.

The PPD Poll, which conducted the most accurate surveys in 2016 on both the national and statewide level, also finds 54% of likely voters now view the New York businessman-turned-leader of the free world favorably, while 40% continue to hold an unfavorable view of him.

That includes 42% who say they have a “very favorable” view and 33% who have a “very unfavorable” view.

This week, 62% of whites said they view President Trump favorably, up from 59% measured last week. The percentage of black voters who view him favorably continued to increase–up from 19% to 21%–after showing significant improvement from 10% to 17% three weeks ago. The percentage viewing him unfavorably was relatively unchanged at 70%.

While we have consistently found Hispanics are the least undecided voting demographic, they have also displayed a propensity to lead the way in the “mind-changers” category. But for the first time, this week that volatility has begun to work in the president’s favor, as his favorability rating showed significant improvement from -26 to -18. The percentage of Hispanics viewing President Trump favorably ticked up slightly from 37% to 39% and the percentage viewing him unfavorably fell considerably from 63% to 57%.

That gain comes after his favorability rating increased from 31% to 37% two weeks ago.

Hispanics continue to remain the least undecided voting demographic, though also display a propensity to lead the way in the “mind-changers” category.

The PPD Poll follows level 1 AAPOR standards of disclosure and WAPOR/ESOMAR code of conduct. The approval poll results were taken from the entire survey conducted from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 and are based on 1504 interviews of likely voters participating in the PPD Internet Polling Panel. The PPD Poll has a 95% confidence interval and is not weighted based on party affiliation (party ID), but rather demographics from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey–i.e. age, gender, race, income, education and region. The sample identified a partisan split of 37% Democrat, 33% Republican and 31% Independent/Other. It uses a likely voter model based on responses to screening questions relating to prior voting history, enthusiasm and registration status etc.