The percentage of Americans who said the country is generally headed in the right direction has nearly doubled since former President Donald Trump left office in January, according to an NBC News survey released Sunday.
The day after President Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration in Washington D.C., the same poll found only 20 percent of Americans agreed that the U.S. was “headed in the right direction.” But that share improved to about 40 percent among 1,000 adults surveyed between April 17-20. But owing to lingering partisan divides, the president only had a very slight decrease of Americans who view him “very negatively.”
Historically, the NBC News poll hadn’t recorded higher than 35 percent of Americans saying the country is going the right direction since March 20—data that was recorded just prior to the full coronavirus outbreak in the United States. In October, about 10 percent fewer Americans expressed the “right direction” mantra compared to this latest April survey. The highest share ever recorded was in September 2001, just following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in which an overwhelming 72 percent of Americans said the country was going the right way. Continue reading.