President Trump’s return to the White House has pushed American optimism about the economy to a seven-year high in Gallup polling, released Monday.

The public opinion firm said 53% of adults responding to an early January poll expected the economy to grow over the next six months, the highest since it started asking the question annually in 2019. Another 61% of respondents anticipated stock market growth, with both numbers up from seven-year lows in last year’s poll.

The poll also registered seven-year highs in the shares of Americans who expected interest rates to drop (41%), inflation to go down (33%), and unemployment to decline (38%) by the end of June.

Gallup chalked up the numbers to optimism among Republicans and independents about Mr. Trump’s second term, with Republicans exhibiting the rosiest outlook.

It also noted that 51% of Democrats surveyed expected the stock market to grow over the next six months and that more Democrats were optimistic about interest rates cooling than in 2023.

“Part of this optimism stems from Republicans expecting things to improve under a Republican rather than Democratic president,” said Jeffrey M. Jones, a Gallup senior editor. “But the broader improvements in Americans’ outlook may also reflect their confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the economy.”

Mr. Jones noted that Mr. Trump’s economic ratings during his first term in 2017-2021 “were typically higher than those [President Joseph R.] Biden received on the issue during his term.”

At the same time, he also said most Democrats may expect inflation, economic growth and unemployment to worsen under Mr. Trump’s plan to tax imported goods.

Gallup administered the survey shortly before Mr. Trump took office on Jan. 20. The president issued an executive order on Saturday that imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tax on products from China that were set to take effect on Tuesday.

“Three-quarters of Democrats expect inflation to rise, perhaps because of Trump’s pledge to impose tariffs on U.S. imports,” Mr. Jones said.

Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,005 adults on Jan. 2-15. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.