While Democrats hosted protests and decried President Donald Trump as a bigot, Americans actually enjoyed the nearly-two-hour-long State of the Union address Tuesday night. CNN surveyed Americans who watched the speech and found that nearly two-thirds (64%) had a positive response to Trump’s message, including 38% who had a “very positive” reaction, outweighing the total of 36% who rated their reaction as negative.

The same share (64%) of survey respondents also said that they expect the president’s policies to lead the U.S. in the “right direction,” up from only 54% who said so in the days before the speech (February 17-20). Likewise, 54% of respondents said that Trump’s speech shows that he has his priorities straight, up 10 points from the week before the State of the Union but down five points from polling immediately following Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress in March last year. Notably, over 60% of respondents said that they approve of Trump’s policies on both the economy and immigration. However, over one-third (38%) of respondents said that Trump is focusing “too much” on immigration, and nearly a quarter (24%) said that he is focusing “too much” on foreign policy.

While a majority (53%) said that the president is devoting “the right amount” of attention to the economy, 45% said that they would like to see him do more on that front. Nevertheless, 60% agreed that they trust Trump to tackle affordability issues, and 65% said that they trust his leadership overall. A narrow majority (51%) also said that they support the president’s use of tariffs. The U.S. Supreme Court recently shot down Trump’s use of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but the president pledged Tuesday night that his tariffs “will remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes, and they have been tested for a long time.” He added, “They’re a little more complex, but they're actually probably better, leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before. Congressional action will not be necessary.”

Fox News also analyzed voter reactions to the president’s speech, with the assistance of polling group Maslansky & Partners. A panel of 40 Republican voters, 30 independent voters, and 29 Democratic voters responded to the State of the Union in real time using a dial. Republicans and independents appreciated Trump’s comments about the U.S. “winning so much that we don’t know what to do about it,” and support from Independent voters spiked when the president introduced the Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team.

On the economy, Independent voters disliked Trump, faulting his presidential predecessor, Joe Biden, for rampant inflation, but joined Republicans in approving of the president’s accomplishments in bringing down energy and mortgage costs. Likewise, independent voters trended nearly identically to Democrats in disapproving when Trump faulted congressional Democrats for the second partial government shutdown in less than a year, but they were quick to join Republicans in endorsing the president’s call to reopen the government and restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), particularly disaster relief agencies. Support also rose among all three polled voter demographics when the president asked legislators to agree that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” although he still remained in the negative territory among Democrats. Republicans and Independent voters also showed support for the president’s remarks in support of election integrity and the SAVE America Act, which would mandate photo ID when voting and require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. “Why would anybody not want voter ID? One reason, because they want to cheat, there’s only one reason,” Trump argued, to the approval of Republicans and independents. “They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat, and we're going to stop it. We have to stop it.”

On Wednesday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Rep. Brand Knott (R-N.C.) noted that the president’s emphasis on illegal immigration coincided with his emphasis on public safety. He pointed out that “sanctuary” jurisdictions, where local authorities shield illegal immigrants and refuse cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), include as much as 45% of American citizens. “They’re not just a passive exercise. They are active in the efforts that they take to protect criminals,” Knott observed. “You extrapolate that into the broader body politic, and you have chaos, you have crime that flourishes, you have lawlessness, obviously. And the president is absolutely correct to say we are not going to tolerate that.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins asserted that the SAVE America Act is “related to the immigration issue, it’s related to the crime issue. It’s protecting America’s elections and the integrity of elections.” Knott agreed. “We have an extraordinary problem here in the United States that is completely resting on illegal immigration, illegal immigrants in the country right now. They vote. They hold appointed offices,” he said. The congressman recounted that illegal immigrants have reportedly attained jobs in law enforcement and on school boards. “Illegal immigration has really permeated every corner of the country, and if we continue to incentivize illegal immigration, it’s going to continue to happen,” he continued, pointing to the SAVE America Act as a solution to the problem. “It’s a basic, common-sense test that the American people support, and I hope that we can get this across the finish line.”

“One of the big questions I have, candidly, is why every Republican senator is not for this measure,” Knott posited. “We know that in various cities and jurisdictions around the country, illegal aliens have the right afforded to them to vote by these liberal governments. That cannot happen in federal elections. It absolutely must be stopped.”

Trump’s approval among surveyed Republicans and Independent voters also surged when he called on Congress to ban gender transition procedures for children and protect families from gender ideology. “Surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” the president said, as red lines (representing Republicans) and yellow lines (representing independent voters) went up and the blue line (representing Democrats) went down. While congressional Republicans quickly rose to their feet cheering, their Democratic colleagues stayed seated, scowling, prompting the president to comment, “Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy, I'm telling you, they’re crazy.” Surveyed Republicans and Independent voters agreed, while Democrats’ approval line went even lower.

The president’s comments on gender transition procedures followed his introduction of Sage Blair, who was socially transitioned by her school in Virginia at the age of 14 and was sex trafficked across state lines after running away from home. The president called on Congress to pass legislation prohibiting gender transition procedures against minors. Rep. Bob Onder (R-Mo.), the sponsor of the bill that Trump referenced, appeared on “Washington Watch” Wednesday night and pointed out that courts in blue states like Maryland, California, and Minnesota will take children away from their parents if the parents do not support the child’s gender transition.

“I agree with President Trump that we need to fix that. We need to outlaw that horrific practice once and for all,” Onder said. He also referenced the Democrats’ “silence on this issue” during the State of the Union. “This is an issue that Americans overwhelmingly agree with pro-family conservatives on. Over 85% of Americans believe that children should not be transitioned to the wrong sex or wrong gender,” the congressman pointed out. “So why Democrats cannot support us in this effort to protect our kids is mind-boggling — other than to say that the radical transgender Left is, to the Democrats’ view, a constituency of theirs, and they don't want to cross these people. But now we are going to protect — despite the Democrats — we are going to protect kids.”

“How could you be for a school district covering up [and] facilitating your child being transitioned to another sex or another gender, and then lending itself to this whole journey that she went through, where she was sexually abused and trafficked?” Perkins asked, referring to Blair’s situation. FRC supported the Blairs in 2023 when the teenager’s story became public, highlighting her in a special State of the Family event. “It was horrific, and they sat there as if their silence was affirmation,” Perkins added, referring to the Democrats. He highlighted how FRC has championed protecting children, even when the position was not immediately politically popular. “This is where we were on the SAFE Act — we were out front on that when the cultural direction was headed the other way.”