Americans who watched the State Of The Union say President Donald Trump focused largely on the priorities most important to them, but did little to inspire widespread confidence in his agenda going forward, according to a Scripps News/Talker Research poll.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents say the president spent time talking about their top issues during the longest State Of The Union speech in history. While 56% say they had a very or somewhat positive impression of the address.
But the survey also found the president fell short when it comes to inspiring confidence on those issues – especially among those outside his political base.
Less than half of respondents (48%) said they were somewhat or much more confident in Trump’s plans to address affordability, compared to 32% who said it made them less confident, and 18% who said it had no impact.
The results were similar for the president’s message on nearly all the major issues of the day, including the broader economy, immigration and health care.
“Elections and voting” was the only issue polled in which more than half of respondents (51%) said they had more faith in Trump after Tuesday.
The results are more warning signs that the president’s message struggles to resonate outside his Republican supporters, even when presented to the large audience the annual speech draws. Each issue polled had high approval among GOP respondents, strong disapproval among Democrats, and support from about four-in-ten independents.
A Scripps News/Talker Research survey going into the joint session found inflation, jobs and immigration the top topics of interest going into the address, with high interest among voters of all parties in hearing the president’s message.
On tariffs, just 44% of speech watchers said they had more confidence. Days before the primetime address, the Supreme Court upended the president’s trade agenda by ruling his sweeping use of tariffs exceeded his legal authority. A majority of speech watchers (54%) said they agreed with that ruling.
Historically, members of the president’s own party are more likely to tune in to the yearly address. And in this survey, Republican respondents (44%) outpaced Democrats (33%) and independents (19%).
“Optimistic” was the most common word associated with the speech, driven by a near majority (49%) of Republicans who associated it with the speech. “Rambling” was the top choice for Democrats (46%) and independents (28%).
Survey Methodology
This random double-opt-in online survey of 1,000 Americans who watched the State Of The Union. It was commissioned by Scripps News and conducted by market research company Talker Research, in accordance with the Market Research Society’s code of conduct. Data was collected from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27, 2026. The margin of error is +/- 3.10 points with 95% confidence.
