Pundits of various stripes have been talking about the “Trump effect” ever since Donald Trump came down the escalator in 2015 and announced he was running for President.
Generally, the “Trump effect” has been applied to measures of economic success or foreign relations – the stock market going up and other countries coming around to the Trump point of view or policy goals.
However, pollster Scott Rasmussen’s famously insightful poll has recently identified what could be the most important “Trump effect” yet, and it spells great news for America: Rasmussen’s poll released February 13 found for the first time in over 20 years more Americans think that our country is on the right track than think it is on the wrong track.
This is an astonishing turnaround from the waning days of the Biden administration when only 31 percent of those surveyed thought the country was headed in the right direction.
And the news for Trump and the MAGA Movement gets even better.
Rasmussen also found that President Donald Trump’s strongly approval rating was at +3; meaning 39 percent of those polled strongly approve of the job he is doing, outnumber the 36 percent who strongly disapprove of the job he is doing.
Trump’s overall approval rating stands at 54 percent approval of the job he is doing versus 44 percent who disapprove of the job he is doing.
Rasmussen’s “right track” is confirmation that the public approves of what President Trump has been doing or saying, even though he is getting hammered in the day-to-day news cycle.
Leading up to Election Day Trump was getting 89 to 95 percent negative coverage and the establishment media continues to be overwhelmingly opposed to his policies.
Despite the negative press, Rasmussen found that 55 percent of Likely U.S. Voters approve of Elon Musk overseeing DOGE, which is assigned to find waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. That includes 38% who Strongly Approve.
Rasmussen found the mission of DOGE is hugely popular with voters. Eighty-six percent (86%) consider it important to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, including 66 percent who say it’s Very Important. Just 11 percent disagree.
Another signature Trump policy – tightening immigration enforcement – is also hugely popular.
Despite the daily news coverage of criminal alien arrests, it appears voters want even more enforcement – 41 percent of Likely U.S. Voters still feel the government is doing too little to reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays. And the demand for more enforcement is bipartisan; 54 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of voters not affiliated with either major party say the government is not doing enough to reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays, as do 29 percent of Democrats.
As Americans headed to the polls in 2024, 61.3 percent of voters felt the country was on the wrong track, compared to 28.4 percent who thought was on the right track – a gap of 32.9 points. Before Biden withdrew from the race in July 2024, the situation was even worse, with 67.7 percent of voters believing the country was on the wrong track and just 22.2 percent feeling positive about its direction.
Throughout most of Biden’s presidency, public perception was similarly negative. Although he began his term with a relatively small negative perception of -6 points in April 2021, that figure surged to over -30 points following the deadly Kabul airport attack during the Afghanistan withdrawal, where 13 American service members were killed. This drop in public confidence, and the feeling that the country was moving in the wrong direction persisted throughout Joe Biden’s term.
The dramatic turnaround in right track, wrong track opinion is the first sign that Trump’s policies are working, and Americans are starting to believe in themselves once again, and that making America great again in still possible – at least with Donald Trump at the helm.
2024 Election
government shutdown
Democrats
DOGE Department of Government Efficiency
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer
District Judge John McConnell Jr.
funding freeze
FACA
Deep State
Mass deportation
tariffs
U.S. trade
trade partners
trade agreements
free trade
labor and environmental practices
foreign subsidies
manufacturing goods
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