President Trump’s longstanding promise to invest $1 trillion in the country’s infrastructure is extremely important to Americans, according to a new poll released Wednesday by AEM.

An overwhelming majority of registered voters think it is critical for President Trump to fulfill his campaign pledge for a $1 trillion spending boost to rebuild roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways across the country. And while infrastructure needs differ in different parts of the country, there is strong overall support among the American people to increase federal spending to rebuild America’s infrastructure.

“When President Trump won the election, our industry saw infrastructure as the one real chance for a bipartisan victory,” said AEM President Dennis Slater. “This new poll shows that infrastructure still enjoys considerable bipartisan support among the general public. But it keeps slipping down the priority list, and that is starting to have a chilling effect on the much-needed investment in our crumbling infrastructure.”

The national poll identified a number of key findings, including:

• Half (49 percent) of registered voters do not believe that President Trump has done enough to rebuild America’s infrastructure, while a majority of registered voters (55 percent) do not think President Trump has done enough to improve the infrastructure in their local communities.
• Eight out of every ten (82 percent) registered voters say it is important for President Trump to fulfill his promise of investing $1 trillion in infrastructure projects.
• An overwhelming majority (88 percent) of Republican voters think it is important for President Trump to follow through on his promise, while nine out of every ten (90 percent) of those who strongly approve of President Trump’s job approval think it is important.
• While half (50 percent) of registered voters are not confident that President Trump will fulfill his promise, a significant majority (78 percent) of Republican are confident that he will follow through and an equally significant majority (79 percent) of 2016 Trump voters are similarly confident.

“As we once again get ready to take our ‘I Make America’ campaign on the road, we fully expect to hear about the lack of leadership on infrastructure,” said Kip Eideberg, AEM vice president of public affairs and advocacy. “The 1.3 million men and women of the equipment manufacturing industry are looking for the White House to lead and for the President to keep his promise.”

Last year AEM released a report called The U.S. Infrastructure AdvantageTM. The report emphasizes the importance of the U.S. reclaiming its infrastructure advantage in order to maintain its global economic dominance. The report also highlights several areas in which infrastructure, such as surface transportation and broadband, provide critical links between urban and rural communities and economies.

About the Poll

This poll was conducted by Morning Consult from April 16-19, 2018, among a national sample of 1,991 registered voters. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Registered Voters based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of +/- 2%.