Americans’ economic confidence has skyrocketed since Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States, reaching a new eight-year high of +10 points, according to Gallup’s weekly economic poll.
According to the latest poll released by Gallup Tuesday morning, Americans’ economic confidence stood at a dismal -65 points around the time President Obama was first elected in 2008. While public opinion did improve overall during Obama’s term, Gallup notes the index fell to -54 points shortly before Obama’s reelection in 2012 and hit a peak of just +5 points shortly after the start of 2015, a full seven years after Obama was first elected.
Conversely, economic confidence stood at a relatively low -11 points shortly before the most recent presidential election, indicating a nearly +20 point upward swing over the past two and a half months.
According to Gallup, Americans’ economic outlook – one of two factors used to measure the nation’s overall economic confidence – has remained at historic highs since the election. Gallup notes Americans’ view of the nation's economic future has been improving drastically since the November, hitting a nine-year high of +11 points last December and currently sitting at +10 points.
“After nine years of nearly uninterrupted negative economic assessments, Americans' views of the economy brightened significantly after the November presidential election,” Gallup stated in its analysis.
In a likely correct assumption, Gallup hypothesized that the upward swing in Americans’ view of the economy is likely due to a much larger number of Republicans who say they’re more positive about the country’s economic confidence heading into a Trump presidency. On the other hand, Democrats’ economic confidence has fallen from +27 points to +8 points since November.
However, Gallup adds, “Nonetheless, even if Democrats' confidence in the economy has slumped since the election, it is still considerably higher than the negative levels that prevailed among Republicans for much of President Barack Obama's tenure.
Gallup's poll is good news for President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on a platform of bringing jobs back to America, diminishing unemployment and boosting the nation's economy.