CNN Political Director Breaks Down How Americans Overwhelmingly Believe Trump Will Successfully Handle Major Issues

CNN political director David Chalian broke down Wednesday how an overwhelming number of Americans believe President-elect Donald Trump will successfully handle a range of key political issues.

A majority of Americans, 55%, currently approve of Trump’s handling of the presidential transition period, which stands higher than his  previous approval ratings in 2016 and 2020, Chalian said on “Inside Politics with Dana Bash.” Most of those surveyors have “some or a lot” of confidence in the president-elect’s ability to handle every key issue mentioned in CNN’s poll, including the economy, the Ukraine war and immigration.

“We asked specifically, ‘do you have confidence in all of these areas’ about how Trump will perform and his ability to handle it. And once again, as we saw throughout the campaign, the economy is issue number one of his strength. 65%, two thirds of Americans in this poll, say they have some or a lot of confidence in his ability to manage and handle the economy as president. And you see, Russia and Ukraine followed there, then immigration and his leadership skills, what he intends to use his power for, whether that will be responsible or not, a bit lower. But again, all of these [are] majority support.”

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Sixty-two percent of Americans have confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the Russia-Ukraine war, while 60% are confident that the president-elect will sufficiently handle the issue of immigration, Chalian said. He received over 50% of support on “providing leadership,” “foreign affairs,” appointing qualified people and “using power responsibly.”

Surveys had repeatedly shown throughout President Joe Biden’s administration that a majority of Americans believed the nation was heading down the wrong path, citing surging inflation and the border crisis. Chalian pointed out that 38% of Americans are currently satisfied with the current state of the U.S. since Trump won reelection, the highest approval since December 2021.

“It’s still more negative than positive, but [the disapproval ratings] is now down to 61% who say that things are going badly. 38% who say things are going well. This is actually, as you can see here, a bit rosier of a sentiment of how people are feeling about how things are going in the country than having existed. In fact, that 38% who say things are going well, that is the best number in CNN polling in three years. We haven’t seen it that high since December 2021,” Chalian said.

A CBC News/YouGov poll from Nov. 24 found that 50% of Americans believe the nation’s best days were ahead, while 39% said those days were in the past. Forty-four percent of those surveyed said Trump’s presidency will cause grocery prices, while 35% said that they believe prices will go up and 21% claimed there will be no change.

Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5 by winning all seven battleground states and by becoming the first Republican nominee since 2004 to win the popular vote.