With Donald Trump coming in second at the recent Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz, and with Marco Rubio just over a percent behind Trump, the popularity (or unpopularity) of the businessman is becoming the hot new topic.
The caucus took place on the 1st of February with Trump expected to beat Senator Cruz in the GOP vote, however, this did not happen with Cruz receiving 28% of the vote and Trump trailing nearly 4% behind.
However, Trump faces another blow with a poll revealing him to be the most “unfavourable” Presidental candidate of all time.
A poll conducted by Gallup, which was released on January 30, said that only one-third of Americans have a favourable view of the business mogul. In fact, 60% of Americans have an unfavourable view of Trump. Donald Trump’s closest competition are on 37% unfavourable (Ted Cruz) and 33% (Marco Rubio). Ben Carson may have popularity polls to worry about, but he can be happy that only 30% think that the surgeon is unfavourable.
Gallup’s editor in chief, Frank Newport, writes that nobody has ranked this high negatively from either party since 1992 when they fest started tracking using this format.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the winner of the Iowa caucus, only just fairs better than Trump, with 52% unfavourablity, whilst her (only) competition, Bernie Sanders is at 31%.
These polls, although, critically seen as fairly accurate, amount of publicity may be a factor. Trump has had an extraordinary amount of press surrounding his campaign, whilst Hillary hasn’t been short of the headlines. So this could simply mean more people know more about Trump and Clinton and therefore are more likely to have an opinion. Carson and Sanders may suffer due to the lack of publicity and therefore, people may not have an opinion either way.
What do you think? Is all publicity good publicity? Is Trump really the most unlikeable candidate of all time?
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