CNN Poll: Public remains negative on Trump ahead of address to Congress
March 2, 2025

The American public’s view of Donald Trump’s presidency and the direction he’s leading the country is more negative than positive just ahead of his first formal address to Congress since returning to office, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

The survey finds that across three basic measures of Trump’s performance on the job – his approval rating, whether he has the right priorities and whether his policies are taking the country in the right direction – the negative side outpaces the positive.

Overall, 52% disapprove of Trump’s performance in office, with 48% approving, about the same as in a CNN poll in mid-February. The poll was completed before Friday’s angry exchange in the Oval Office between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and does not reflect public opinion on that

Elon Musk’s rule by poll
Derek Robertson, Digital Futures Daily 2/25/25

To rally support for his effort to impose an email questionnaire on federal employees, Elon Musk resorted to one of his favorite tactics: posting a poll on X.

“Should all federal employees be required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished last week?” Musk asked Sunday morning, inviting his 200 million-plus followers to voice their approval or disapproval.

None of these things are true of Musk’s polls on X, which are seen only by X users (and primarily his own 200 million followers). Anyone can respond, including non-Americans and bots. The polls are conducted on a platform that he alone controls, making decisions about who sees the poll, when and where they see it, and how it’s worded.

And he ignores the answer if he feels like it: In December 2022 a clear majority of X users told him that he shouldn’t govern the platform, to which he responded by saying that he would limit who could vote in polls going forward to paid subscribers (a promise on which he seemingly did not follow through).

Smerconish Polls