Viewers who tuned in to President Donald Trump’s speech mostly approved of what he said, but took issue with Democrats’ acts of protest.
The audience, which was heavily Republican, had a positive overall view on Trump’s first address of his second term to a joint session of Congress. Trump spoke for 100 minutes against a backdrop of a turbulent stock market, a chaotic federal workforce undergoing mass layoffs and dissent from Democrats sitting before him. Yet, he touted his first six weeks in office as “the most successful in the history of our nation.”
Roughly 70 percent of speech-watchers had a “somewhat positive” response while 44 percent had a “very positive” response, according to a CNN poll. But Trump didn’t fare as well as he did with viewers eight years ago, when 57 percent rated his address to Congress “very positively.” He also fell short of the marker set by former President Joe Biden’s initial address, when 51 percent of speech-watchers also felt “very positively.”
In a poll taken before the speech, 6 in 10 viewers said they approved of Trump’s overall handling of the presidency. These positive numbers are in contrast to the president’s approval ratings, with just 48 percent of adults approving of his performance as president so far and 52 percent disapproving, a Sunday CNN poll found.
Perhaps the difference is due to the speech viewership trending more Republican than the general public. CNN found that the viewing audience was 14 percent more GOP than the general population, while CBS News found that 51 percent of speech-watchers identified as Republican, 20 percent as Democrats and 27 percent as independents.
"Presidential and “entertaining” were the two most common terms viewers used to describe Trump, a CBS News poll found.
As for Trump’s stance on major issues, most viewers said they liked his plans when it came to cutting government spending (77 percent), immigration (77 percent) and how to handle conflict between Russia and Ukraine (73 percent), CBS found. However, Trump saw slightly less support from speech-watchers for his stance on tariffs, with 65 percent saying they liked the move.
The speech came days after the Oval Office meeting meltdown between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During his address, Trump said he “appreciated” a letter he received from Zelensky underscoring how much Ukraine “really values” America’s aid.
“Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussion with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace...It’s time to end this senseless war,” Trump said. “If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”
According to CNN, 37 percent of speech-watchers thought Trump’s policies were too supportive of Russia while 58 percent thought they were “about right.” Roughly 63 percent of speech-watchers thought his policies toward Ukraine were “about right” and one-third thought they were not supportive enough.
Democrats, however, were not nearly as well-perceived by speech-watchers. They held up signs reading “FALSE” and “MUSK STEALS,” some heckled the president and others left during the speech.
For example, many took issue with the moment Texas Rep. Al Green stood up, wielding his cane, and shouted “you have no mandate” to cut Medicaid. He was then removed from the chamber. According to the CBS poll, 76 percent approved of his removal compared to 24 percent who disapproved.
The CNN poll found that 20 percent thought the Democrat’s interruption was appropriate while 80 percent thought it was inappropriate.
These disruptions by the opposite party during presidential addresses have become very common in recent years.
During former President Joe Biden’s state of the union in 2024, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene handed out Laken Riley pins and shouted at him to “say her name” during his address. In 2020, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed dissent during Trump’s last state of the union address of his first term when she ripped up a copy of his speech.
