From being labeled as criminal and crazy to being praised as strong and good, public opinion of Donald Trump has shifted remarkably over the past six months.
As Trump surged to a lead in the polls and ultimately secured victory, voters’ perceptions of the former president have undergone a significant transformation.
J.L. Partners’ surveys illustrate this change vividly, with word clouds showing a shift from overwhelmingly negative to more positive descriptors.
The latest poll reveals that 37 percent of respondents, including 15 percent of Democrats, have developed a more favorable view of Trump since the election.
Many voters cited a desire for national unity under new leadership and expressed approval of Trump’s Cabinet selections as reasons for their changing opinions.
In a recent online survey involving 1,006 registered voters, conducted three weeks post-election, participants were asked to encapsulate their view of the president-elect with a single word.
‘Great,’ is the word that dominates the resulting word cloud, beside ‘strong,’ ‘good,’ and ‘leader.’
‘Bad,’ ‘a**hole,’ and ‘racist’ all feature, but have taken a backseat compared with the results from August.
Voter attitudes to Donald Trump have softened since he won the Nov. 5 election
Go back to June and the results are even more damning. The word cloud features: Criminal, evil and disgusting.
James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners said it was clear that views had been transformed since the start of the year.
‘Part of this is because Donald Trump ran a good election campaign. He presented strength, whereas his opponent, in Kamala Harris, presented weakness,’ he said.
‘But there is also something in the fact that Trump won the election. Broadly speaking, we are seeing people getting behind the president, and when asked why that is the most common answer is that we need to unite as a country.’
‘It remains to be seen how long that will last in a potentially divisive presidency but at the moment, voters are warming to Trump and saying let’s give him a chance.’
Trump won a more convincing election victory than most pundits expected.
Not only was he the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years, but he also claimed victory in all seven of the key battleground states up for grabs.
Since the election, more than a third of registered voters in our poll said they had a more positive view of Trump. However, some 24 percent (including 44 percent of Democrats) said they had a more negative view.
Voters were asked to explain why their views on Trump had changed. Fo
Trump’s romped to victory, becoming the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote
J.L. Partners asked respondents to then explain in a sentence or two why their view had changed.
For those saying it had become more positive, the most common explanations included the words: President, America, country, and Cabinet.
For those saying it had become more negative, the key words were: Cabinet, people and racist.
Overall, the survey found that Trump had a higher favorability rating than President Joe Biden, although both are in the red with voters.
Some 40 percent of voters said they had an unfavorable view of the president-elect, with 30 percent saying they had a positive impressive, giving a net score of negative 10.
For Biden, the numbers were 35 percent who disapprove and 22 percent who approve, giving a net score of negative 13 points.
