What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending January 21, 2017

Out with the old, in with the new.

Donald J. Trump was sworn in yesterday as the 45^th president of the United States. The first Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Trump shows that 56% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of his job performance. Regular updates are posted Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

Eighty-three percent (83%) think Trump is likely to reverse or abolish most of outgoing President Barack Obama’s accomplishments, with 47% who say that’s Very Likely.

Will Trump’s vision of America succeed where Obama’s did not? 

Voter attitudes about Trump have changed little since Thanksgiving, with just over half of voters continuing to give him favorable marks.

Fifty-six percent (56%) believe Trump is likely to put what’s good for his businesses ahead of what’s good for the country, including 38% who say it’s Very Likely.

Trump announced recently that he is turning his business empire over to his two sons, but 39% of voters think he should be required to sell all his businesses to avoid any possibility of conflict of interest. 

Most voters planned to tune in to at least some of Trump’s inauguration, although nearly half of Democrats said they’d be tuning it out.

Trump was sworn in as president on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, the same one used by Obama for both of his inaugurations. Voters strongly support the longstanding tradition of presidents swearing in on the Bible.

But 34% think the time between Election Day and Inauguration Day should be shorter.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Democrats blame Trump for his bad relationship with the media, but 63% of Republicans think the media is more to blame.

Voters tend to disapprove of Trump's frequent use of Twitter to bypass the traditional media but are evenly divided over whether future presidents will follow in his technological footsteps.

Half (50%) of all voters believe America is a more divided nation after eight years with Obama in the White House. Just 22% think the United States is a less divided country now.

Confidence that the War on Terror is going America’s way has jumped to its highest level in over four years, but most voters don’t think this country is a safer place than it was eight years ago.

Voters tend to think Obamacare will be the defining marker of Obama’s presidency, with his handling of social and racial issues, the Iran nuclear deal and his policies on illegal immigration and refugees all tied for a distant second.

While many of his policies were unpopular with most voters, Obama himself has grown more and more popular as his presidency comes to a close.

In other surveys last week:

-- Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters now believe the United States is headed in the right direction. That ties the high for all of last year first reached in early December.

-- Americans are warming to the idea of police and commercial drone use.

-- But then more Americans than ever say their local police officers are doing a good job.

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Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.