The majority of Americans who tuned in or followed news coverage of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night thought that the president hit the right notes, according to the results of an NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released Thursday.
Four in 10 people surveyed watched Trump's address, which drew in roughly 45 million viewers. Twenty-nine percent didn't watch the speech but followed news coverage, and 30 percent did not watch the speech or follow news coverage.
Of the 69 percent of Americans who watched the speech or followed the coverage, the majority — 60 percent — said Trump mostly focused on the right things. However, roughly four in 10 people surveyed, or 38 percent, said Trump mostly focused on the wrong things. His speech — subdued in tone but featuring several of his more polarizing policy proposals — centered on immigration, infrastructure and economic progress under his watch, among other topics.
However, there was an enthusiasm split among those who watched or followed coverage of the speech.
Among those who said they watched or followed coverage of the address, 35 percent were enthusiastic about his address, and 21 percent were satisfied but not enthusiastic. Yet, 26 percent were dissatisfied but not angry and 16 percent were downright angry.
According to the survey, about four in 10 people who watched or followed coverage of the address said they give Trump a lot of credit for the improvements to the nation’s economy during the past year, while 21 percent said they give him some credit. Two in 10 said they don’t give him much credit and roughly the same percentage said they give him no credit at all.
Related: Trump claims his State of the Union was most watched ‘in history.’ It wasn’t.
Despite the majority of those who watched or followed coverage saying Trump focused on the right things, 45 percent of all adults surveyed said they would vote for the Democratic candidate if the 2018 midterm Congressional elections were being held today. About four in 10 adults, or 39 percent, said they would vote for the Republican candidate, and 12 percent said they would not vote.
The NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll was conducted from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2018, among a national sample of 4,424 adults. Respondents for this nonprobability survey were selected from the nearly three million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points. For full results and methodology, click here.