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Poll Shows This Demographic Is Especially Excited for Trump, While Biden Receives Particularly Bad News

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 20, 2025 12:00 PM

President-elect Donald Trump is to be inaugurated for his second term, on Monday at 12 noon, representing a sense of hope and optimism for many Americans after the chaos of the Biden-Harris administration. There's radical leftists and petty Democrats no doubt grumbling about Trump, with notably leaders in the party even boycotting the address. But, how do ordinary Americans feel?

On Sunday, CBS News/YouGov released a poll highlighting how "Trump's return to office greeted with optimism, high expectations." By 60-40 percent, Americans say they're "optimistic" as opposed to "pessimistic" about the next four years of Trump's presidency. Young people, ages 18-29, are especially optimistic, with 67 percent saying so. 

The 18-29 crowd are a funny bunch because they typically support Democrats, but they're also not the most reliable at voting. Further, this poll is of U.S. adults rather than voters. It's still worth reminding, though, that even a year before Trump was elected, there were hopes he could do well with such a demographic. Sure enough, Trump made gains, especially young men, for the 2024 election. 

"Trump made gains over 2020 with younger voters, and today, young Americans are more likely to voice optimism about him than are older Americans," the CBS poll write-up noted, also adding in parenthesis how young people are "also just generally more likely to voice optimism whenever asked to look ahead."

That 60 percent may not be as high as the optimism facing other presidents, but it's at least higher than Trump's numbers from 2017, when 56 percent said they were optimistic, and the 58 percent who said they were optimistic in 2021 ahead of President Joe Biden taking office. 

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The poll write-up even provides Trump some cover there, blaming those lower numbers in comparison on partisan politics. "In this hyper-partisan era, though, optimism for incoming presidents isn't quite as high as it once was. For Carter and Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton and Obama, CBS News polling at the time showed higher optimism than either President Biden in 2021 or Trump today enjoys," the write-up explains. "That's largely because these days, opposing partisans are less likely to express positivity."

The poll write-up also highlights how the reasons why Americans are optimistic factored into Trump's win. As that write-up begins:

A majority of Americans are optimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump, even more so than they were in 2017 before his first term. And most are hopeful about the coming year.

That's bolstered by Americans' expectations for a good economy in 2025 — higher than they currently rate it — along with wide belief among his voters that Trump will bring down grocery prices, make them financially better off and bring more peace and stability to the world. 

It all echoes many of the reasons Trump won in the first place.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents believe that Trump's policies will make grocery prices go down. An even stronger plurality, at 42 percent, believe that Trump's policies will make them better off. 

And, an even stronger plurality from there, at 46 percent, believe that Trump's policies will "increase peace & stability in the world." It's hard to see peace get worse, after Biden's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, how Russia's Vladimir Putin was emboldened to invade Ukraine, and how Hamas attacked Israel. One question included later in the poll found that 51 percent believe Biden's policies led to "more conflict between Israel and other groups in the Middle East." 

There's plenty more mention about the economy, which was a major issue in the 2024 election, whether Trump was running against Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, once she had been installed as the replacement nominee. In virtually all legitimate polls, Trump led his opponent on that issue. 

While just 38 percent consider the economy to be good today, and 56 percent consider it to be bad, looking ahead to 2025, 52 percent expect it to be good. 

When respondents were asked about policy issues and if they want Trump to make it a "high priority," "medium priority," or "not a priority," 82 percent said they wanted Trump to make the economy a "high priority," and 79 percent said they wanted him to make inflation a "high priority."

These poll results aren't exactly surprising, and not merely because Trump won handily against Harris. Shortly before the end of 2024, CBS News also released a poll showing that a majority of Americans, at 57 percent, were "hopeful" about 2025. Many credited how Trump was going to be president.

This most recent poll also examined how Biden and Harris fare as their disastrous term comes to an end. Sixty-three percent of respondents disapprove of the way Biden "has handled his job as president over the last four years," with even 23 percent of his fellow Democrats saying so. Just 37 percent approve of how Biden has handled his job as president. The 75 percent of liberals, 77 percent of Democrats, and 65 percent of black respondents are the only demographics where a majority approve. "Biden, meanwhile, exits with Americans evaluating his presidency as low as they ever have during his term," the write-up mentioned. 

Harris fares slightly better, as her approval/disapproval rate is at 43-57 percent. 

There's an interesting question when it comes to whether Harris could have won if Biden dropped out of the race sooner, which he didn't do until July 21, leaving Harris with a 107 day campaign. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke about how Biden dropping out when he did in the interview she gave for The New York Times just days after the election. And, 54 percent of Democrats do think that Harris could have won. They, and the 57 percent of liberal respondents, however, are the only demographics where a majority think so. Overall, just 28 percent think Harris could have won, while 72 percent say it would have made no difference.

Anthony Salvanto discussed the results on Sunday's episode of "Face the Nation" highlighting that optimism, including how there's more optimism than there was when his first term was starting, and that it's mostly to do with expectations for the economy. 

He also stressed how Biden's approval rating is "lower than any mark that he received in approval over the course of his term," with Salvanto blaming how the numbers "dipped lower" due to inflation. 

The poll was conducted January 15-17 with 2,174 U.S. adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. 

On X for Sunday, the poll results were trending, both when it comes to the optimism for Trump and Biden's low approval numbers. This isn't the only poll to have bad news for Biden. Last week, as we covered at the time, CNN released a poll showing that 61 percent believe Biden's presidency is a failure. 

CNN's Harry Enten also further discussed Biden's awful legacy by the numbers, emphasizing how they were "historically awful," even among those presidents who lost or didn't run for reelection, including Trump when he lost after his first term and whose legacy looked potentially marred. Biden's approval numbers are at 38 percent, while Trump was at 39 percent. 

"The bottom line is this: Joe Biden came in to end the Donald Trump reign in this country, right? End Donald Trump's political career. And all that's ended up happening is that Joe Biden has managed to end up at a lower approval rating at the end of his first term than any president on record," Enten emphasized.

But, Enten also thought it was worse than that 38 percent, according to an AP-NORC poll, just 25 percent believe Biden was a "good" or "great" president at the end of his term. "But look at how low Joe Biden is," Enten continued to stress, "my goodness gracious, you can't really get lower than 25 percent in our polarized era," with Enten highlighting how this is particularly bad since there would be Democrats who would give him a high rating regardless. "It is the lowest number since AP-NORC started tracking this back at the end of Barack Obama's second term," Enten also pointed out. "Bottom line is Joe Biden goes out a very unpopular man at the end of a 50+ political career."

In contrast, Biden may be experiencing his lowest numbers, Biden is experiencing close to his highest numbers, ever, a point Enten really stressed. Further, 56 percent expect Trump to be "a good president."

Make sure you're following along with Townhall's coverage of the inauguration, even with the event having been moved indoors due to extremely cold winter weather.