A poll conducted in the wake of the longest State of the Union address in history delivered Tuesday night by President Donald Trump found that it garnered a heavily Republican audience. Still, it found that many watchers wanted to hear more about the economy.
According to CNN’s poll, the pool of SOTU watchers was about 13 percentage points more Republican than the general public. In the House Chambers, a number of Democratic lawmakers also skipped the address in a boycott and attended their own event.
Based on a pre-speech survey, a majority of viewers most wanted to hear the president discuss the economy, and other polls have found Americans are concerned about the economy. While 53% of the viewers polled by CNN said Trump paid the economy enough attention, 45% said he didn’t focus on it enough.
Trump covered a variety of topics during the address, from his immigration crackdown and unpopular tariff policies to war in Iran and his, TrumpRx prescription drug program and Trump accounts for infants. He also handed out honors to the Olympic gold-winning U.S. men’s hockey team, National Guard members who were attacked in Washington D.C. last year, a Coast Guard swimmer who rescued a girl from Texas floods and more.
“Speech-watchers were about evenly split on whether Trump’s handling of tariffs was an appropriate use of power, or whether it represented an overstep on his part,” said CNN. “And just 31% expressed a lot of confidence in the president to make the cost of living more affordable, with 29% saying they had some confidence in him to do so and 40% that they had none at all.”
Overall, two -thirds of the Republican leaning audience said they had “at least a somewhat positive reaction to Trump’s speech,” CNN noted. However, it also said that the 38% who had a very positive response was down from the reception to Trump’s address to Congress last year.
“It’s similar to the ratings that former President Joe Biden saw during his last year in office,” the outlet added.
At the same time, the speech seemed to rally positivity for Trump’s policies. CNN said that a pre-speech survey found that 54% of respondents said they “believed his policies would move the country in the right direction” compared to 64% after the address. Additionally, the share who believed Trump has had the right priorities was just 44% prior to the speech and 54% “immediately following its conclusion.”
As of Wednesday, the day after the State of the Union address the Economist reported that Trump’s approval rating was holding steady at 39%.