Donald Trump can be expected to continue his public campaign to convince Americans he’s actually well liked and on his way to the White House for a second term following the forthcoming presidential election next year, but the numbers just aren’t there.
New polling from Ipsos done in collaboration with ABC News found just 29 percent of respondents expressing a favorable view of the former president, while 60 percent shared an unfavorable perspective. Those numbers mean the respondents viewing Trump unfavorably were 31 percentage points ahead of those viewing Trump with favor. While the same polling, which was completed November 4, also found Joe Biden with low levels of a favorable view among Americans, the chasm between those with an unfavorable view and respondents with a favorable perspective was nearly halved for the incumbent.
These numbers mirror other dismal signs for Trump, like the recent polling from YouGov and The Economist that found a majority don’t want Trump running again at all. Among young people, meaning individuals from the ages of 18 through 29, a whopping 74 percent said they didn’t want to see Trump in the currently unfolding presidential race — and none of these figures suggest a clear path to success for the ex-president-turned-continued candidate, no matter the occasional, widely shared polling that shows a lead for Trump in key states.
Trump took the witness stand this Monday at trial in the fraud case brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, predictably arriving rather quickly at his characteristic approach of verbal combat with his opponents. Whether giving answers that veered from the basic substance of the questions he was asked or berating the judge, who will decide the trial’s outcome, Trump was all over the place. Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron repeatedly demanded that Trump keep his answers on topic and rejected attempts from Trump’s legal team to argue the ex-president should be provided more leeway in delivering his answers.
