What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending June 9, 2018

President Trump leaves tariff contention at the G-7 meeting in Quebec this morning to begin his journey to Singapore to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for talks about eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons threat.

The Trump administration last week imposed tariffs on metals imported from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Voters are divided about Trump’s handling of trade issues, but they’re certain that he's more aggressive in this area than his predecessors. 

As far as most active duty military personnel and veterans are concerned, Trump is a stronger commander-in-chief than most recent presidents. A sizable majority of all voters agree that Trump pushes America first harder than his predecessors.

Looking at the economy, stock markets regained their swagger this week as the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed back into the 25,000 territory and more jobs were available than the number of unemployed workers.

Voters feel young black Americans are better off under Trump than they were under Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. 

Yet, despite Trump’s recent executive orders making it easier to effectively discipline and fire bad federal employees, most Americans still think a government job is the gig to have.

Perhaps in part because of the robust U.S. economy, results from primary elections Tuesday in eight states, including California, indicate that the blue wave Democrats hope for in November may not be the tsunami they expect.

In fact, Republicans are more enthusiastic than Democrats and independents about voting this November, though all Americans are more eager to vote than they were in the last mid-term elections. 

In the nearer term, Democrats have regained a slight lead on this week’s Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot.

Despite political differences, Americans overwhelmingly are proud of their nation and its past. 

But that doesn’t mean they don’t see the need for basic improvements, notably this week in education as the nation’s schools begin releasing students for summer recess.

Voters continue to give low marks to America's public schools, and most remain convinced that the graduates of these schools aren't ready to go to college or even just to work. 

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the United States spends nearly $13,000 per student per year on education, but voters still don’t think that’s enough. 

In other surveys last week:

-- One-in-three voters think the United States has stepped up its exploration of alternative energy sources, a significant improvement from previous years. 

-- This week’s Rasmussen Minute highlights the growing epidemic of homelessness in America. Driven primarily by high costs of living and drug abuse, lawmakers, like those in Seattle, are proposing new taxes on big businesses to help remedy the problem. 

-- The president earned a monthly job approval of 48% in May, down one point from April. Fifty percent (50%) disapproved of his job performance this month, unchanged from the previous month. 

-- Thirty-nine percent (39%) of voters now think the country is heading in the right direction. 

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

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