Americans upbeat about Trump, but not his tweeting – polls

WASHINGTON DC, USA – Americans are mostly optimistic about the country under the incoming presidency of Donald Trump, though they want him to stop tweeting, national poll results showed Tuesday, November 22.

Nearly double the number of voters – 59% versus 37% pessimistic – said they are “optimistic about the next 4 years with Donald Trump as president,” the independent Quinnipiac University Poll found.

Only 17% said that Trump would be a “great” president, while 32% said he would be a “good” president.

A slightly smaller group viewed him negatively, with 26% saying he will be “bad” and 17% saying he will be “not so good.”

A separate CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday found that most Americans – 53% – think that Trump will do a “very good” or “fairly good” job as president.

The results of the polls come two weeks after the Republican billionaire’s unexpected win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. His November 8 election, after an extraordinarily nasty campaign, exposed a deeply divided country on values and governance.

The beginning of Trump’s transition to the White House on January 20 appeared to inspire some confidence in his presidency.

The CNN/ORC poll found 48% were more confident, while 43% were less so.

Trump’s behavior post-election has made 36% of voters say they feel better and 14% feel worse, the Quinnipiac poll showed.

But Trump’s high use of Twitter to communicate to the public drew ire.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, 59% of American voters say he should shut down his personal Twitter account, and 35% disagreed.

“Voters tell President-elect Donald Trump, ‘You’ve got the job. Now be a leader not a tweeter,'” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, in a statement.

“And we’re watching to make sure you put the country, not the Trump brand, first.” 

Both polls were conducted November 17-20 by interviews on phone land lines and cellphones, and had margins of error of plus or minus three percentage points. The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,071 voters nationwide; the CNN/ORC poll 1,003 adults. – Rappler.com