2017 US Politics - Decline of Americans Who Believe the US is Heading in the Right Direction (August 16)

Listen to The Point Being, a podcast from the Ipsos Polling Team, where Chris Jackson and Phil Elwood discuss this week’s numbers.

The past week has seen a reshuffle in the issues of top concern to Americans, with trepidation about international conflict and the economy climbing as healthcare wanes. Specifically, healthcare has dropped six percentage points to 16% of Americans naming it as the “most important problem facing the US today”. Concern about war and foreign conflicts (likely related to recent rhetoric regarding North Korea) both jumped six percentage points this week, tying with the economy – all at 11%.

The last seven days have also seen a marked decline in the proportion of Americans who believe the US is heading in the right direction, down to 24% (3 points down), with three fifths (60%) saying we’re on the wrong track. A significant majority of Independents now believe the US is on the wrong track, up 11 percentage points from last week. Over half of Republicans (52%) still believe we are heading in the right direction, down four percentage points since last week.

President Trump’s approval has dropped slightly and is now at 35% - although it remains significantly higher than Congress’ approval rating of 21%.

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters August 11-15, 2017. For the survey, a sample of 1,587 Americans, including 680 Democrats, 555 Republicans, 202 Independents ages 18+ were interviewed online.