Even as network anchor Brian Stelter blames Donald Trump's election on conservative outlets that allegedly pushed so-called “fake news” during the campaign (including taking aim at MRCTV's sister outlet, Newsbusters), CNN begrudgingly admitted Tuesday that according to its own poll, most Americans actually think Trump will do a pretty good job as president – even compared with the confidence Americans had in CNN’s own executive darling, Barack Obama, back in 2008.
A narrow majority (53%), say they think Trump will do a very or fairly good job as president, and 40% say they have a lot of confidence in Trump to deal with the economy, a share that outpaces the percentage who had that much confidence in Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan ahead of their first inaugurations.
CNN added that "Separately, 63% say they expect the economy to be in good shape a year from now, the highest share to say so since September 2012."
While Americans are still clearly divided as to Trump himself, the president-elect's transition plan and the general future of the country, the public's outlook on the next four years seems to be improving since the Nov. 8 election.
CNN’s poll echoes other national surveys showing Trump’s favorability among Americans rating heading in a generally upward direction.
MRCTV’s Monica Sanchez reported Monday that Trump’s favorability had gotten a boost in Politico’s latest poll (up to a high of 46 percent), while the same survey showed his unfavorability rating dropped from 61 percent to 46 percent less than two weeks after the election.
Sanchez added:
Similarly, Gallup reports that Trump’s favorability rating has improved since the election, increasing from 34 percent to 42 percent, the highest favorable percentage recorded by Gallup throughout the election cycle and beyond.
Crossing party lines, his favorability has improved among Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.
Only time will tell whether the new Trump presidency will continue to garner Americans’ favor. But one thing seems fairly certain, at least for now: as desperately as the media tries to paint Trump’s incoming administration as an impending tidal wave of racist bigots and religious sexist fanatics who’ll set the country back a few hundred years, fewer and fewer Americans seem to be buying it.