Voter optimism on the direction of the country has ticked up in new polling, signaling attitudes may be bouncing back after President Trump’s controversial tariff moves roiled global markets.
A new Harvard CAPS/Harris survey found 42 percent of voters said the country is on the right track, up 3 points from last month and 16 points from November. The number was still underwater, though, as 49 percent said the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Roughly a third, or 34 percent, of voters said their personal financial situation was improving, up 2 points from April. Another 39 percent said their situation was getting worse, down 6 points to the lowest share recorded by the pollster since October 2021.
Fifty-one percent of voters categorized the economy as strong, a jump of five points from April.
“With the stock market recovery we … are seeing the voters diverge in their views from broader consumer surveys and are showing more optimism for the first time since the last Trump administration,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the poll.
Still, voters indicated concern about Trump’s moves on tariffs and skepticism about his policies.
Nearly 6 in 10 voters said Trump’s tariff policies are harming the economy, and a plurality of 49 percent said the White House went too far with tariffs.
Voters were split 50-50 on whether Trump’s policies are making the U.S. economy stronger or weaker, as well as on whether his policies are leading to more or less investment in the country. A little over half said he’s losing the battle against inflation.
The president’s overall approval remained relatively steady at 47 percent in the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris survey, compared to 48 percent in April, though it’s down roughly 5 points since February.
Less than a third of voters, or 31 percent, said Trump is doing better than expected in his second White House term — while 43 percent say he’s doing worse and 29 percent say it’s as expected. Back in February, roughly equal shares said Trump was doing either better or worse than expected, at 36 and 35 percent, respectively.
The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted May 14-15 among 1,903 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.
The margin of error for the entire sample was plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
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