Poll: 2018 was the best or worst of times -- depending on your party

The second year of President Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House was even better than the first for most Republicans (58 percent), while most Democrats (51 percent) said it was worse than 2017.

John Jost, co-director of New York University’s Center for Social and Political Behavior, said in an email that this pattern would likely reverse if a Democrat were president. Attitudes among partisans on the direction of the country tend to buoy when their party has the White House, per Gallup analysis stretching back to 2007.