The mainstream media set low expectations going into President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday evening. Since his inauguration, they have been in a sort of war with Trump, especially since the debut of his latest executive order on immigration.

Ironically, however, these low expectations may have worked to Trump’s advantage, as polling shows that the majority of Americans responded positively to the president’s address, which called on Congress to end trivial fights and instead focus on actually helping Americans. Overall, the speech had a much more optimistic tone than those of his campaign, which were often criticized by the media and liberal politicians for their “doomsday” tones.

A CNN poll, for example, shows that 57 percent of viewers reported having a very positive reaction to Trump’s address. Twenty-one percent of viewers had a somewhat positive reaction, while only 21 percent reported a negative reaction and one percent had mixed reactions. These results, which show positive reactions to Trump’s speech in nearly 8 in 10 viewers, are in stark contrast to Trump’s recent approval ratings and portrayal by the media. And more significantly, these numbers also surpass those of Barack Obama’s congressional addresses of the past six years, despite Obama’s higher approval ratings.

An AOL poll boasts similar results, with 60 percent of viewers reporting positive reactions versus only 16 percent reporting negative reactions, while CBS reports a 76 percent approval rating versus a 24 percent disapproval rating of the speech. 

While Trump’s address was a clear victory for his administration, it is the hope of Republicans that he will continue the optimism and charisma he demonstrated on Tuesday into the next four years of his presidency. And for Democrats, Trump’s address proved winning back seats for their party in 2018 and 2020 may not be as easy as sitting back and waiting for the president to sabotage himself.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore