54% of Americans optimistic Trump will make country prosperous — poll
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (Xinhua) — More than half of Americans, or 54 per cent, are optimistic that President Donald Trump will do a good job of making the US prosperous, the latest Gallup poll has found.
However, Americans are less optimistic about Trump than about his predecessors Barack Obama (61 per cent) and George W Bush (66 per cent), according to the poll.
Forty per cent of Americans say Trump will do a poor job of making the country prosperous, compared to Obama’s 30 per cent and Bush’s 23 per cent.
In terms of environment protection, only 36 per cent of Americans say Trump will do a good job, compared to 57 per cent who believe he will do a poor job.
In comparison, 79 per cent of Americans had said Obama would do a good job of protecting the environment in 2009 and 51 per cent said Bush would do a good job in this regard in 2001.
When asked about energy policies, 46 per cent of Americans say Trump will do a good job of improving US energy policies, while 48 per cent say he would do a poor job. In comparison, 72 per cent of Americans said Obama would do a good job of improving US energy policies in 2009, while 58 per cent said Bush would do a good job in this regard in 2001.
Trump has been less popular in general than both Obama and Bush at the start of their terms in office, so he might see less of a drop from expectations to ratings of actual performance than Obama or Bush did, Gallup noted.
“But his plans for action on the environment and energy will seemingly require real shifts in public opinion to succeed, given Americans typically view energy problems as less important than protecting the environment,” Gallup said.