Poll: With Just One Day To Go Until The End of the Trump Administration, Majority of Americans Are Worried About the Future

A poll released a day ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration finds that the majority of Americans are worried and pessimistic about the future, a further indication of the general malaise that has dogged American politics.

The poll, from NBC News, found that 53% of Americans are pessimistic about what the future holds compared to 44% who are optimistic.

Additional findings:

• 73 percent of Americans say the nation is on the wrong track and expect polarization to persist;
• Just 21 percent of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction;
• 73 percent of Americans believe the country will remain divided during Biden’s four-year term;
• Only 21 percent of Americans believe the country will be more unified in four years;
• 60 percent believe Biden has done a good job handling the presidential transition;
• 32 percent say otherwise;
• 44 percent believe President Donald Trump has handled the transition well during the same period ahead of his inauguration compared to 71 percent who said the same about Barack Obama;
• 55 percent said they expect Biden to act more like previous presidents and bring a sense of familiarity back to the White House;
• Just 37 percent expressed confidence in Biden’s goals and policies for his term;
• Just 43 percent expressed confidence in Biden’s personal qualities

“Donald Trump leaves to Joe Biden a country divided, off on the wrong track, and also with a new sense that the future may not be as bright as we thought,” said Jeff Horwitt, a Democratic pollster who works with Hart Research Associates and conducted the survey of 1,000 registered voters with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies. “This is the America that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris inherit.”

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.1%, was conducted between January 10 and January 13 in the days after a mob of President Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol at his behest in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 general election. Those who engaged in the failed insurrection bought into the president’s fictions about widespread election fraud, for which there is no credible evidence.