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The latest Gallup poll, conducted the first two weeks of the New Year, provides President Trump with even more ammunition for his State of the Union speech scheduled for Tuesday night.
The poll found that public satisfaction with the economy, security from terrorism, the strength of the country’s military, and the state of race relations all rose by double digits from three years ago.
The average satisfaction for all 27 issues tracked by Gallup is the highest seen by the pollster since 2005. In general, said Gallup, Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country.
These results echo similar polling done by Rasmussen, USA Today/Suffolk University, Fidelity Investments, and the University of Michigan.
Back in October, Rasmussen Reports reported that enthusiasm over the Trump economy was close to all-time highs, while in November the pollster noted that those polled said the jobs market was better than a year earlier and likely to get even stronger. In another November poll, Rasmussen reported that Americans’ overall confidence in the economy remained near record highs while in December, 62 percent — a new all-time high — of those polled said they continued to feel good about the economy. In January, another all-time high record was set by its Economic Index.
In early December, Fidelity Investments took the temperature of Americans and found that more than 80 percent of them said they were feeling good or even better about their finances when compared to a year earlier. The same percent told Fidelity that they expected to be even better off in 2020.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll taken in early December revealed that 80 percent of Americans predicted that their lives would be better in the New Year. This “optimism stretched across demographic lines”, said the pollster.
The University of Michigan released its consumer sentiment poll the last day of the year, revealing that it jumped to 99.8, a nine-month high and just below its all-time high. Richard Curtin, the chief economist for the UMich survey, said, “The resilience of consumers is remarkable and due to record low unemployment, record gains in income and wealth, as well as near record lows in inflation [price increases] and interest rates.”
The president already has plenty of good news to crow about, and these results merely add to his arsenal. Trump is likely to take credit for signing new trade deals, building up the country’s military, pushing NATO members to pick up more of their mutual defense burden, stemming illegal immigration, supporting Israel, confronting China’s theft of intellectual property in its quest to overtake America, taking out terrorists, reducing cumbersome regulations, touting home ownership and the boom in housing, making the country energy independent, lowering drug prices, and more.
All of which leaves Democrat contenders with little to crow about except for their personal dislike of and distaste for the president. Come November, Americans will once again vote their pocketbooks, aided by their increasing disgust with the impeachment show put on by those Democrats, who are clearly out of ammo.
Photo: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
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