Americans Bullish on Trump Economy

Approximately 61 percent of Americans view the economy as strong and believe it will continue to improve under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a Harvard-Harris poll published Sunday.

The poll, which was conducted between Feb. 11 – 13 and surveyed 2,148 registered voters, found that 61 percent of respondents viewed the economy as “strong” compared with 39 percent who characterized it as “weak.” In addition, roughly 42 percent said that the economy is on the right track under the Trump administration, while 39 percent believe it to be the wrong track. While 60 percent of the Republicans polled felt reassured about the economy’s current trajectory, even 33 percent of Democrats felt the economy was on the right track.

“As your president, I’m going to do everything that I can to unleash the power of the America spirit and put our great people back to work.”

“It’s really a surprising turnaround given how negative voters have been about the economy since 2009,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard-Harris poll, according to The Hill. “But jobs remains the number one issue and a lot of the change in sentiment anticipates tax cuts and infrastructure programs.”

Indeed, less than a month before Trump assumed the presidency, a Politico/Morning Consult poll published in early January showed that 95 percent of voters wanted their new president to by hyper-focused on jobs. Of those 95 percent, 48 percent wanted Trump to focus on revamping manufacturing jobs and 47 percent hoped that the president would zero-in on repatriating offshore jobs.

And thus far in his presidency, Trump appears to have heeded the voters’ concerns.

“Jobs is one of the primary reasons I’m standing here as president, and I will never ever disappoint you,” Trump told the crowd gathered at a Boeing plant in South Carolina Friday. “This is our mantra, buy American and hire American.”

Trump also pointed to the bevy of economic indicators and several recent reports showing that the economy was continuing on its upward trajectory.

The Small Business Optimism Index hit its highest level since 2004 in December. The Philly Fed Index, which measures how manufacturers are faring, scored its highest level since 1984 in February. The S&P 500 rose 3.8 percent and the Dow rose 2,279 points since Trump assumed the presidency. In fact, the U.S. stock markets have exhibited their highest “winning streak” in 25 years, CNN Money reported Thursday.

In addition, approximately 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy in January — a record that far exceeded economists predictions of 175,000, as The Hill noted.

“You look at what’s happening with jobs. You look at what’s happening with plants moving back to this country. All of a sudden they’re coming back,” Trump said Friday. “As your president, I’m going to do everything that I can to unleash the power of the America spirit and put our great people back to work.”

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Trump’s message of cutting taxes, slashing job-killing regulations, and renegotiating or exiting “disastrous” trade deals seem to be taking root and inspiring much of the nationwide optimism.

“I’ve talked to dozens of big and small-company CEOs since the election,” Dave Cote, CEO of industrial powerhouse company Honeywell, told Fortune last week. “And I’m seeing a big improvement in animal spirits. Before, the attitude was, ‘Things will muddle along, so we’ll muddle along with it.’ Now the herd is saying, ‘Things are looking up. We don’t want to miss out on this, so it’s time to ramp up investment.'”

“We needed some kind of a spark,” Cote added. “And the spark was the change that occurred because of the election.”