Multiple polls from varying outlets show that President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was wildly successful. Newsweek’s headline reads: “Donald Trump’s Congress Speech Was a Huge Hit With Americans”, CBS News’ reads: “Poll on Trump’s 2025 joint address to Congress finds large majority of viewers approve.”
Even CNN writers were probably crying when they had to admit their own poll showed the President did well with the headline “CNN poll: Trump address to Congress gets modestly positive marks, changes few minds.”
The CBS News/YouGov Poll found that 76% of viewers approved Trump’s Tuesday speech. 68% said the speech made them feel “hopeful.” Most speech viewers described the president as “presidential, “inspiring” and more “unifying” than “divisive.” A big majority also called it “entertaining.”
The poll found a significant majority of people who watched the speech said they liked Trump’s plans for reducing federal spending and waste (77 percent), immigration (77 percent), ending the Russia-Ukraine war (73 percent) and imposing tariffs (65 percent).
According to a CNN poll majority of watchers had quite positive reactions. CNN of course downplayed the positivity by writing:
Roughly 7 in 10 speech-watchers said they had at least a somewhat positive reaction to Trump’s speech tonight, with a smaller 44% offering a very positive response…
Speech-watchers broadly said Trump’s policies would take the country in the right direction, with majorities saying the same across five issue areas that were the focus of the president’s speech…
CNN was true to form in claiming Trump’s speech on Tuesday “did little to further improve the already-positive perspectives of his audience” but then noted the percentages went up multiple percentage points from the speech: “a survey conducted prior to the speech, 61% said they believed his policies would move the country in the right direction; afterward, 66% of the same people said his policies would take the country down the right path. The share who believed Trump has had the right priorities so far stood at 56% prior to the speech and 59% immediately following its conclusion.”
