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By Anthony Salvanto,
/ CBS News
A majority of Americans are optimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump, even more so than they were in 2017 before his first term. And most are hopeful about the coming year.
That’s bolstered by Americans’ expectations for a good economy in 2025 — higher than they currently rate it — along with wide belief among his voters that Trump will bring down grocery prices, make them financially better off and bring more peace and stability to the world.
It all echoes many of the reasons Trump won in the first place.
In this hyper-partisan era, though, optimism for incoming presidents isn’t quite as high as it once was. For Carter and Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton and Obama, CBS News polling at the time showed higher optimism than either Joe Biden in 2021 or Donald Trump today enjoys. That’s largely because these days, opposing partisans are less likely to express positivity.
Just as economic views and inflation propelled Trump to a win, today many Americans — especially Trump’s voters — expect to be financially better off.
And just as inflation and the economy were top issues in the election, they are far and away the top things they want Trump to prioritize now.
Americans are more hopeful about the coming year generally than they were at the start of 2021, when the pandemic was still going on.
Looking overseas, more think Trump will increase peace and stability in the world than decrease it, and specifically, decrease conflict between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East.
(In contrast, just over half look back now and say Mr. Biden’s policies created more conflict there.)
Most Americans are in favor of deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally, as voters were during the campaign, though not of using the military to carry out deportations.
On a number of other potential policy ideas, things are more split. Ending birthright citizenship is not widely popular, and it only divides Trump voters.
People are not sold on the idea of buying Greenland. Most Trump voters would approve of it, but not universally, and it’s not a popular idea beyond that.
It does shed an important light on how Americans think Trump thinks, though: many of them feel he’s just leveraging for a larger negotiation.
On imposing tariffs on imported goods, Trump’s voters overwhelmingly favor the idea (even though they don’t necessarily think this will bring down prices), while a slight majority of Americans overall are opposed.
The idea of ending or reducing DEI programs is strongly supported by his voters; the rest of the country is more split.
Still, most Americans say they are concerned about the state of U.S. politics right now, and that concern is highest among Democrats, whose ranks don’t look especially activated right now.
Many Democrats describe themselves as “demoralized,” along with being “exhausted” and “concerned” about U.S. politics when asked to choose descriptors. Few say they’re even “interested.” Even fewer say they’re “motivated.”
They’re roughly split over whether they want congressional Democrats to find common ground or oppose Trump at every turn now; the most liberal are the most opposed. And then they have some — though not a lot — of confidence that their congressional leadership can effectively oppose Trump when they disagree.
There’s also some sense among them of missed opportunity as Mr. Biden departs: just over half think Harris could have won if Mr. Biden had stepped aside sooner.
Biden, meanwhile, exits with Americans evaluating his presidency as low as they ever have during his term.
Looking ahead along other demographic lines, some of Americans’ outlook for the Trump administration follows some of the contours of what happened in November.
Trump made gains over 2020 with younger voters, and today, young Americans are more likely to voice optimism about him than are older Americans. (They’re also just generally more likely to voice optimism whenever asked to look ahead.) Trump did better with men and made gains with women, and today both are optimistic, men especially so.
Today, almost a quarter of the voters who backed Kamala Harris are optimistic now about the next four years with Trump, reflecting perhaps some willingness for them to reevaluate him once he takes office, something we often see with a losing candidate’s supporters, at least early on.
In all, more Americans are pulling for the new administration to succeed, compared to very few for it to fail. The ratio is far higher for desired success. This is similar to how it was for Joe Biden four years ago, too. And then for many, they say it simply depends on what Trump tries to do.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,174 U.S. adults interviewed between January 15-17, 2025. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.
Anthony Salvanto, Ph.D., is CBS News’ executive director of elections and surveys. He oversees the CBS News Poll and all surveys across topics and heads the CBS News Decision Desk that estimates outcomes on election nights
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