Americans Are More Optimistic About the Economy After Trump’s Reelection, Survey Shows

Americans are more optimistic about the economy than they were before Donald Trump’s reelection, a newly released survey from pollster Scott Rasmussen’s Napolitan News Service shows.

A survey of 1,000 Americans conducted in early January reports 24% of Americans say their financial situation is improving and 33% say it’s getting worse.

The Napolitan Institute press release explains that this result is “one point less pessimistic than a month ago and a six-point improvement since Donald Trump was elected.”

Of course, this cannot be the result of Donald Trump’s policies in action, as he has not been inaugurated yet.

But Rasmussen’s survey does suggest a major improvement in Americans’ optimism about their finances since the November elections, as the institute reports that these numbers are “the least pessimistic result we’ve measured in two years, since February 2023.”

The report further explains that “the number saying their finances are getting better has remained very steady over the past year. However, the number saying their finances are getting worse dropped from 41% just before the election to 33% now.”

But not all Americans are optimistic. According to Rasmussen’s survey, “elite adjacent” respondents have become significantly more pessimistic about their finances in defiance of the national trend towards optimism.

“Elite adjacent voters are better off financially than Main Street voters. However, their level of optimism has declined over the past month,” explains Rasmussen. 

The survey defines these elite adjacent voters as “those who share one or two of the Elite 1% attributes—have postgraduate degrees, have household incomes over $150,000, live in the most densely populated urban areas—but not all three.”

These voters have exhibited a loss of economic confidence just as precipitous as the rise in confidence of other voters. 

“In the most recent survey, 35% of these voters said their finances are getting better and 29% worse,” writes Rasmussen. “That net +6 is down eight points from pre-election levels and down seven from the immediate post-election numbers.”

While the lasting effects of Trump’s economic policies on the financial optimism of Americans remain to be seen, the dramatic shift in attitudes among Americans suggest that they take his economic projects seriously.