This article originally appeared on The Hill
Voters ranked the economy as the top area where President Trump has performed “better than expected,” according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll.
The survey, released on Monday, found that 36 percent of all voters said Trump performed “better than expected” on the economy.
The majority of Trump’s supporters also said his strongest suit was his handling of the economy, with 63 percent saying he has handled it “better than expected.”
The president frequently touts economic growth under his administration, pointing to lower unemployment.
The Labor Department reported earlier this month that the economy added roughly 312,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent from 3.7 percent.
Among all voters, Trump’s handling of national security at 24 percent, followed by judicial appointments at 22 percent, and foreign policy at 21 percent.
Twenty-three percent of voters said that Trump performed better than expected on policy priorities, such as tax cuts and border security, while 20 percent said the president has performed “better than expected” at running the government.
Trump received much lower numbers on tone and messaging, with only 12 percent saying he performed “better than expected.”
Republican pollster Conor Maguire told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Monday that Trump has already proved that perceptions of his tone do not matter because he was able to get elected with the same tone.
“On the economy, yes, that’s where I want it to be the best thing. That’s what Trump’s known for,” Maguire, senior client strategist at WPA Intelligence, said on “What America’s Thinking.”
“On the tone side of things, I think that President Trump has already proved that that doesn’t matter,” he continued. “That’s how he got elected.”
The Hill-HarrisX poll contacted a demographically representative sample of 1,000 registered voters, Jan. 25 and 26. The survey has a sampling margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
— Julia Manchester