“Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.”

At the moment Trump said this, polling showed the opposite. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken March 3 and 4, 2025, the day before and the day of the speech, found 34% of Americans saying the country was headed in the right direction and 49% saying it was on the wrong track. PolitiFact rated the claim Mostly False, finding Trump cherry-picked outlier surveys.

The polls Trump could lean on were thin reeds. Emerson College's January 2025 poll had 52% saying right direction and 48% wrong track, and by March 8 to 10 the same poll was split evenly.

The "first time in modern history" framing fails on its own terms: it wasn't even true the night he said it, let alone a historic first. PolitiFact has documented Trump cherry-picking favorable polls going back to 2017, when it rated his claim of 50% approval based on a single Rasmussen survey as cherry-picked then, too.

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