Trump's State of the Union left some viewers unconvinced that he'll lower cost of living, CNN poll finds

[SunSeeker]

President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address drew largely positive marks from a heavily Republican audience, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

But it didn’t fully convince significant shares of even that friendly audience that he’s focusing on the nation’s most important problems or that he’ll lower the cost of living.

Good marks from speech-watchers are typical for presidential addresses to Congress, which tend to attract generally friendly audiences that disproportionately align with presidents’ own parties. In CNN’s speech reaction polls, which have been conducted most years dating back to the Clinton era, audience reactions have always been positive.
...
Speech-watchers were about evenly split on whether Trump’s handling of tariffs was an appropriate use of power, or whether it represented an overstep on his part. And just 31% expressed a lot of confidence in the president to make the cost of living more affordable, with 29% saying they had some confidence in him to do so and 40% that they had none at all.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/politics/trump-state-of-the-union-cnn-poll-cost-of-living