Domenico Montanaro

You don't get almost eight in 10 people in polling agreeing on much, but that's what we found here.

Nine in 10 Democrats, eight in 10 independents, 61% of Republicans all say that there's a serious threat.

Now, as we know from other surveys and conversations we've had with voters,

What they see as those threats in many cases is very different.

Democrats see the country backsliding on liberal democracy.

Republicans have concerns that elections aren't secure, something Trump has pushed to explain away his 2020 loss despite evidence to the contrary.

We also asked whether the system of checks and balances in the country is working.

Two-thirds say it is not.

Here again, though, with Trump in office, Democrats and independents overwhelmingly say that it's not working.

But a majority of Republicans do see it working well.

And that makes some sense because Republicans in Congress, as we've seen, haven't put many checks on Trump during his first year as he's tried to centralize power.

Many of these splits feel like what we've seen all along when it comes to Trump.

Yeah, I asked our pollster about this, and he said that views of Trump are very, quote, baked in, in his words.

And, you know, that makes Trump's challenge at the State of the Union all the more difficult.

He's facing a very skeptical public in a midterm election year, and those are generally not very good for the party in power anyway.

And whatever he says as it relates to midterm messaging is going to set the backdrop for the next several months until those November elections.

People have been saying that prices, the cost of living are their top concern and don't think that the Trump administration is focused on it enough.

Trump has mostly sidestepped it and focused on other things like immigration, foreign affairs.

But how does he try to reset that, if at all, tomorrow night?

You're welcome.