Two weeks after his triumph, most Americans say President-elect Donald Trump will ultimately do a good job as president, though fewer approve of the way he has handled the transition so far, according to a new poll.
A narrow majority (53 per cent), say they think the 70- year-old real estate billionaire-turned politician will do a very or fairly good job as president, and 40 per cent say they have a lot of confidence in Trump to deal with the economy, according to a CNN/ORC Poll.
The poll result outpaces the percentage who had that much confidence in Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan ahead of their first inaugurations, CNN reports.
That perception comes as majorities think Trump will achieve several of the goals outlined during his campaign as top priorities.
Nearly three-quarters say Trump is likely to repeal and replace Obamacare, two-thirds think he will renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and 6 in 10 say he will create good-paying jobs in economically challenged areas.
Separately, 63 per cent say they expect the economy to be in good shape a year from now, the highest share to say so since September 2012.
Americans are more divided over whether Trump will "drain the swamp" and reduce the amount of corruption in Washington (51 per cent think that's likely), defeat ISIS (50 per cent see that as likely) or build a wall along the border with Mexico (48 per cent see that as likely).
66 per cent say a Trump presidency will bring change to the country, but just 43 per cent say it will be change for the better, twenty points below the 63 per cent who thought Obama would bring change for the better in November 2008.
That share has dropped precipitously among independents (from 88 per cent for Obama to 60 per cent for Trump), and among Democrats, even when compared to Republican ratings of Obama (49 per cent of Republicans thought Obama would bring change for the better, just 22 per cent of Democrats say that about Trump).
Trump's favourability has risen post-election to a high point in the polling: 47 per cent have a favorable view of him, 50 per cent unfavorable.
Though still tilting negative, those ratings outpace the previous high reached just after the Republican Party convention in July, when 43 per cent saw Trump favorably.
Reviews are mixed for Trump's transition so far, 46 per cent approve of his handling of the transition, 45 per cent disapprove. Those marks are well below approval ratings for Obama, Bush or Clinton during their transitions to the presidency.
Only about half (48 per cent) say that Trump's statements and actions since Election Day on November 8 have made them more confident in his ability to serve as president, while 43 per cent say he has made them feel less confident since upsetting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton two weeks ago in a win that few saw coming.
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On one point of concern, few say Trump has done enough to assuage their worries. About 6 in 10 say the arrangement Trump has proposed for handling his business while serving as president -- to have his adult children run the Trump Organization -- does not go far enough to prevent conflicts.
The poll suggests Trump is shaping up to be one of the most polarising presidents-elect the nation has had in recent years.
While 40 per cent say they have deep confidence in him to handle the nation's economy, 34 per cent say they have no real confidence in him on that score, 7 points above the previous high of 27 per cent for George W. Bush and nearly double the share who had no confidence in Obama on the economy (19 per cent). Just a quarter fall into the middle category, saying they have "some confidence" in Trump.
On handling foreign affairs, a weak point for Trump throughout the campaign for the presidency, confidence in the President-elect is sharply upside-down, yet still, few land in the middle.
Almost half (49 per cent) say they have no real confidence vs. 27 per cent who say they have a lot of faith in the president elect, just 23 per cent say they have "some confidence."
On both issues, Republicans are more confident in Trump's abilities to handle them than were Democrats in Obama's abilities or Republicans in Bush's abilities on the same issues, the report said.
Overall, Trump ranks toward the middle of the pack on providing leadership and making appointments, but here too, his no confidence numbers far outpace those for his predecessors.
On providing real leadership, 33 per cent have deep confidence, but 43 per cent say they have no confidence. And thinking about appointing the best people to office, 32 per cent say they have a lot of confidence in Trump, yet 45 per cent say they have no confidence in him to choose appointees.
These numbers could shift as Trump fills out his cabinet and staff; polling measuring confidence in previous presidents-elect was conducted closer to their inauguration after many critical appointments had been made.
Several demographic divides that emerged during the campaign appear to persist post-election. Women are less apt to see Trump as a good president than are men, almost two- thirds of whites say he will do a good job vs. About a third of non-whites, and residents of rural areas are more than twice as likely as urbanites to think Trump will do a good job.
About half of Americans overall say that four years from now, they expect the country to be better off than it is today, 46 per cent say it will be worse off and just 3 per cent say it will be the same.
That was worse than impressions of how the country would be after four years of Obama, but a little better than assessments of how it would be doing four years in to George W. Bush's presidency.
The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone from November 17 through 20 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
