“It’s Hard To Believe His Approval Hasn’t Slipped More”: Trump Favorability Has Remained Mostly Stable Over the Past Year

Michelle HollandNov 12, 2023

Minute Read

A recent study by the Pew Research Center has revealed that Donald Trump’s favorability rating has remained largely stable among the US public over the course of the past year. Despite this, he has become somewhat more unpopular among Republicans.

Attempting a Second Presidency

The former president is running for office again in 2024, hoping to dash Biden’s hopes for reelection. He is currently the frontrunner to be the GOP nominee but is also dealing with a series of legal battles, including four of a criminal nature.

Unpopular With the Majority

63% of Americans are currently said to have an unfavorable view of Trump, slightly up from last year when 60% of people disapproved of the former president. 35% of respondents in this year’s poll said that they view him favorably.

Declining Republican Support

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There has been a greater shift among the GOP, with 66% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents having a favorable view of Trump, down from 75% last year. Trump’s unfavorably is at 32% in this group, up from 24% last year.

Universal Democratic Disapproval

Democrats have consistently had negative opinions of Trump, with 91% having a negative impression of him now, including 78% who described their views as “very unfavorable.” In contrast, only 8% have a favorable perception of the 2024 Republican hopeful.

Biden Is Also Widely Disliked

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Trump is set to lose the election next year. Biden, on the other hand, is also largely viewed unfavorably, with 60% of Americans sharing this sentiment, an increase from 55% last year. His approval rating currently sits at 39%, slightly higher than Trump’s but down from 41% last year.

Kamala Harris Has a Similar Problem

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59% of people view Vice President Kamala Harris unfavorably, up from 52% last year; 36% hold a positive opinion now compared to 43% in 2022. Biden has seen a 5-point decline in popularity among Democrats, whereas Harris’ favorability is down by 9 points in the same demographic.

Surprisingly Small Slip

Many people online were expecting Trump’s popularity to have fallen more significantly among both Republicans and Americans more generally. “It’s hard to believe his popularity hasn’t slipped more,” one forum commenter wrote.

Trump’s Legal Issues

Since the 2022 poll was conducted, Trump’s legal dramas have escalated significantly. The former president is now involved in six legal cases — four criminal and two civil — and became the first former president to be federally indicted in June over the classified documents found by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022. He is currently on trial for business fraud in New York.

A Significant Decrease

Forum members were, overall, most interested in how Trump’s rating had gone down by 9 points amongst Republicans. “They’ve just figured this out?” one person said, highlighting Trump’s racism, misogyny, criminal behavior, and narcissistic personality. “Just now? Wow, I thought children were slow learners, but now I realize it is the entire Republican Party,” they added.

Focusing on Electability

Some people hypothesized that the GOP’s position on Trump himself hadn’t really changed, but instead, they’d merely gotten increasingly concerned about Trump’s favorability with the general public. “They don’t doubt him, they just doubt he can win is what it should say,” one poster declared.

The Current Supreme Court

Others felt that Republicans believe Trump has fulfilled his purpose by making the SCOTUS overwhelmingly conservative, leaving it with 6 Republican judges to 3 Democrats. “They got their stacked Supreme Court. Now they can move on to someone with less provable allegations against them,” read one user’s opinion.

Giving the GOP Too Much Credit

While some people expressed relief that Trump’s support had dwindled, others felt that it was being overstated. “Only 1/3 of them has figured it out so far,” one person observed. Someone else suspected that “at minimum, a third have always viewed him as unfavorable,” indicating that a substantial drop was unlikely.

Endorsements Still Expected

People doubted that the GOP supporters who view Trump unfavorably would ultimately vote against him if it comes down to it. “If he ends up as the nominee for president… they’ll all still vote for him,” wrote one commenter.

Fickle Opinions

Many felt that they couldn’t trust Republicans in the “unfavorable” group to stick to this view. “They’ll quickly change their mind back to “favorable” if Trump does or says something they like such as insult someone,” someone predicted.

Republican Party Unity

“If 99% of Republicans view the traitor as unfavorable, if he runs as the Republican candidate, all of them will rally behind him — begrudgingly or not. That bunch may be many things, but they know how to unify against the ‘other guy’…” one user explained, following up with the assessment that “they may not agree about anything else, but they’ll agree to hate the liberals.”

The Other 66%

“That means 66% of them still approve of his racism, bigotry, white supremacy, and his crimes,” one poster stated. “Come 2024 we need to all get out and vote these psychopaths out of office,” someone else said, concluding that “we the American people have got to stand up against this nonsense.”

False Sense of Security

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One person speculated that many GOP fans were purposely misrepresenting their views to mislead the public into thinking Trump’s chances had significantly lessened, resulting in increasing complacency. Others had a more optimistic takeaway from the poll, hoping that Trump’s diminishing popularity meant that more moderates could be swayed to vote for Biden and defeat Trump once again.