CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Tuesday that the percentage of Americans who believe the nation is “on the right track” has surged under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
A survey from Marist, published March 3, found 45% of Americans say the U.S. is on the correct trajectory. An NBC News poll published March 16 found that 44% shared the same sentiment.
Enten, on “CNN News Central,” noted these figures are “very high” for modern times and significantly higher than those under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
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“If the polls have historically underestimated Donald Trump, what is a metric that might get an understanding of how popular he may actually be. So let’s take a look at the percentage of the country who say that we’re on the right track,” Enten said. “It’s actually a very high percentage when you compare it to some historical numbers. What are we talking about? According to Marist, 45% say that we’re on the right track. That’s the second highest that Marist has measured since 2009. How about NBC News? 44%? That’s the highest since 2004.”
“The bottom line is the percentage of Americans who say we’re on the right track is through the roof. And if you were to compare it to when presidents have historically been reelected — of course Trump is not constitutionally eligible to run for reelection, but I think it sort of puts it in perspective — 42% of the country says the country is on the right track when the incumbent party is reelected,” he continued. “And also keep in mind, back when [former Vice President] Kamala Harris lost and the Democrats were turned out of power, only about 27 to 28% of the country said the country was on the right track.”
Enten also said earlier in the segment that Trump’s net approval rating is also near his peak, based on his own aggregate of polling.
“All we talk about is how unpopular Donald Trump is. But in reality, he’s basically more popular than he was at any point in term number one and more popular than he was when he won election back in November of 2024,” the data analyst said. “What are we talking about? His net favorable rating right now comes in at minus four points. Compare that to where he was when he won in November of 2024, when he was at minus seven points, or in March of 2017 when he was at minus 10 points.”
“So when you compare Trump against himself, he’s actually closer to the apex than he is to the bottom of the trough. And of course, that’s so important because Donald Trump, historically speaking, has had his numbers underestimated,” he continued. “So I think it’s very important to compare him to himself to understand he’s actually more popular now than he was when he won, or certainly where he was at this point back in his first term. The bottom line is Trump is more towards the ceiling than he is towards the floor.”
Moreover, the NBC News poll found Trump’s approval rating matched its highest point across both of his terms at 47%. The majority of voters, 52%, also said they approve of Trump’s job performance, while just 46% said they disapprove, according to Rasmussen Reports’ “Presidential Tracking” poll.
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