Poll: 75% Approve of Trump’s State of the Union Address

An “instant” poll of viewers who watched President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night found that 75% approved of the speech, while only 25% disapproved — a 50-point margin in the president’s favor.

Our instant @cbsnews @yougov poll finds strong approval among viewers of SOTU pic.twitter.com/HQv7saMjdQ

— Anthony Salvanto (@SalvantoCBS) January 31, 2018

CBS News remarked: “Eight in 10 Americans who watched tonight felt that the president was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it.”

The CBS News / YouGov poll may have been skewed somewhat by the fact that more Republicans watched the speech than Democrats.

But note: #SOTU viewers were more Republican than Dem— typical of a President’s speeches, their partisans watch more pic.twitter.com/omjpDME6ZZ

— Anthony Salvanto (@SalvantoCBS) January 31, 2018

However, Trump showed unusually high approval numbers even among Democrats who watched:

SOTU got nearly full approval from Reps and mixed from Dems in our instant poll pic.twitter.com/XujoCK29PA

— Anthony Salvanto (@SalvantoCBS) January 31, 2018

The sharply positive result for a president whose overall approval rating generally hovers in the high 30s and low 40s suggests that the speech was a striking success.

Many pundits who are normally critical of the president were singing his praises. Frank Luntz, for example, was deeply moved — and mocked the Democratic response delivered by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA):

Tonight, I owe Donald Trump an apology. Tonight, I was moved and inspired. Tonight, I have hope and faith in America again.

It may go away tomorrow…
But tonight, America is great again. #SOTU

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) January 31, 2018

Marco Rubio had dry-mouth during his #SOTU response in 2013.

Joe Kennedy has drool-mouth. pic.twitter.com/7DUVnfcIJJ

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) January 31, 2018

The poll was based on interviews with 1,178 respondents and had a 3.1% margin of error.

Update: A CNN poll showed a similar result, with 70% of viewers expressing a “positive” or “very positive” reaction to Trump’s speech.

The liberal media have egg on their faces – new @CNN snap poll showed 70% had either a "very positive" or "somewhat positive" reaction to Trump's #SOTU speech tonight #TTT pic.twitter.com/FDRciOiJZ3

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 31, 2018

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.