Why do americans like/don't like Trump?

[Anonymous]

[nightdrot]

Not all Americans do. Actually President Trump's support has been remarkably constant. Hovering around the 47% mark since he was elected and - unusually - not much impacted one way or the other. When the economy was booming, Mr. Trump was at 47%. When the pandemic and impeachment hit - about the same.

This in contrast to, for example, former President Reagan. At his low water mark, the 1982 recession when the rate of unemployment hit 10.8% - until this pandemic induced recession, the highest of the post WWII era - Reagan dropped to 34%. Then the economy began to boom and by 1986, President Reagan hit an eye watering 71% approval.

That is the norm and in that sense President Trump defied gravity. Albeit at a level below majority support.

The reasons for such being that the country has entered a populist phase - not unlike the 1960s and 70s. This phase inspired in part because of the transition from a manufacturing/extractions base to a service/tech base. Thus even during the booming "pre-pandemic" economy, the lot of the lower middle blue collar (particularly white) class did not significantly improve.

To this was added a certain cultural condescension by the Democrats who were searching out the younger college educated vote. Thus President Obama's infamous remark that the working class - to use that term - were "clinging to guns and religion." Thus Hillary Clinton's equally infamous "deplorables" comment and her promise to put the miners out of business.

Suffice to say, the working class, which had seen itself as playing by the rules, working hard, going to church and being patriotic, did not cotton to being so dismissed and looked down upon. Their problems are real - declining lifespan, rising suicide, etc. - and being looked down on was deeply resented.

President Trump - for all his many, many failings (and I was and am no fan) - read this audience and appealed to it. His "in your face" and telling the politicians, i. e. "the swamp" and the "elites", what they can go do with themselves - to put it crudely - sings to the blue collar class that feels it was betrayed and abandoned. Thus they have stuck to former President Trump through thick and thin, come what may, with very little deviation even now.

Of course this very same approach has capped the President's support - again at about 47% on average. Trump's knack for pouring salt in the social wounds has made it hard for the college educated, women, among other groups, particularly those thriving in the new service/tech economy, to see any good in the former President. To these voters Trump was and is destructive, divisive and self-absorbed. (The latter of which he is and to some degree his own less justified personal sense of grievance allows him to psychologically understand the lower middle class - albeit the latter's grievances are far more justified in material terms at least.)

Reagan, to cite that example, was the opposite. His policies - in their day - were actually more controversial. However, after two decades of tumult in the 1960s and 70s', Reagan had a natural ability to calm the social waters and thus even his opponents came to like him in some ways.

CONT.

[nightdrot]

(This was captured brilliantly in a cartoon that appeared during Reagan's tenure that showed a pollster asking a voter what he thinks of Reagan's policies, #@*!! was the response. Next panel - The same pollster asks the same voter what he thinks of Reagan personally - "Oh nice guy. Really like him. Friendly, jovial.'" Suffice to say, those latter are not terms one might apply to Mr. Trump.)

Thus, Mr. Trump's support has both a floor and a ceiling. His victory in 2016 because the lower middle class was once the heart and soul of the Democratic coalition and Mrs. Clinton (and to some degree Mr. Biden now) had not - and still really has not - found a way to win them back. Mr. Trump's support being a minority, but an intense one and thus it has been well said of the 2020 election that there were not many Biden supporters, just Biden voters.

[NamerOfStars]

Those who like him generally like his blunt-spoken populism, and the fact that he's pretty much the antithesis of "a politician"; he doesn't mince words and openly defies many of the would-be oligarchs of the country.

Those who dislike him *legitimately* generally dislike his inarticulate blundering, his blowhardical (not actually a real word, but can you think of a better term for him?) blustering, and his clear lack of political knowledge.

Most of the vehemence, however, is NOT legitimate- it's from a prolonged and DEEPLY dishonest media campaign to discredit him in the eyes of the public. A campaign that would have you believe that he's an unspeakably racist rapist who hates the poor, the working class, and women.

[XXblack88]

They like him because he wasn't a career politician he's a business man. While he didn't stop illegal immigration he slowed it down. The cost of living was cheeper. I'll admit Trump was arrogant sometimes but at least I didn't have to pull up a dictionary to figure out what he was saying.

[HighValue]

Trump put America and Americans first with his policies so conservatives liked him for it.
Trump didn't support recreational drug use, laziness, China, criminals, or homosexuality/transgender agenda in schools for little kids so democrats hate him for that.

[FunkyMonkee]

The smart people love him because of all the great things he did for us! The stupid people hate him because CNN told them to. Otherwise, they really have to legitimate reasons!! You ask them and they can't tell you a single actual thing he did to deserve their ire!!

[exitseven]

He was a Washington outsider and represented all Americans. All demographic groups experienced a batter standard of living and got opportunities instead of just handouts. He was not a politician and I think that was the point.

[Anonymous]

There must be something worth living for
There must be something worth trying for
Even some things worth dying for!
And if Donald Trump can stand tall
There must be hope for us all
Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of America

[Noodle_fan]

not American , but i like him because he is talented at singing

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xeTItqKPrNM

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

The man is an extremely entitled, whiny arrogant, disrespectful and mean spirited man.

You have to be a scumbag to actually look at a person like that and be fond of him.

[IsoUser]

Mainly because he's an insane douchebag with early onset Alzheimer's Disease with dilusions of grandeur!

[OddBeMe]

Most Americans hate corruption.
Some americans overlook corruption for their political agenda.

[Anonymous]

They don’t like him because he said some racist and sexist stuff.

[Cubus]

I like him because he made economy better.

[Anonymous]

Trump = hatred.