Rich highlighted the Morning Consult’s poll, which showed that 49 percent of Americans rated the Inaugural address as “excellent” or “good” while only 39 percent rated it fair or poor. Gallup gave respondents slightly different options, but yielded a similar picture: 53 percent chose “excellent” or “good,” 42 percent “just okay,” “poor,” or “terrible.”
But Gallup got better results for the last three Inaugural addresses. The 2013 split (Obama II) was 65-31 percent positive, 2009 (Obama I) was 81-15, and 2005 (Bush II) was 62-31. These results are consistent with other polling that shows more public coolness to Trump than to most new presidents. Part of the reason for that is that a lot of the people who voted for him still have serious misgivings about him. Josh Barro calls them “Trump-curious” voters, and they are likely to remain politically decisive.