Mitch Perry
Donald Trump may just be a passing fad in the 2016 GOP presidential sweepstakes, but he’s certainly having a moment in summer 2015.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 57 percent of Republicans now have a favorable view of the celebrity businessman, compared to 40 percent with an unfavorable one. That’s a dramatic turnaround from a similar survey taken nearly two months ago, which showed 65 percent of Republicans viewed The Donald unfavorably.
The survey says Trump’s numbers have improved enough that they are nearly as good as frontrunner Jeb Bush. Bush’s 63 percent favorable rating among Republicans outpaces Trump by six points. Overall, Bush is viewed favorably by 38 percent of Americans and unfavorably by 47 percent.
Trump’s improvements have been broad-based, with his numbers creeping up among most all demographic and political groups. He has even improved slightly among Democrats and liberals, though he is still at very low levels (19 percent favorable among Democrats and 17 percent among liberals).
Even though conservatives such as Pete Wehner insist that Trump is anything but a true conservative, that sentiment isn’t reaching the grassroots, apparently. The poll shows that among conservatives (not Republicans), Trump’s favorable ratings are at 46-46 percent.
Not surprisingly in the least, one demographic where Trump is tanking with is Latinos. Trump has dominated news coverage as he refuses to apologize for his remark that Mexico is purposely sending us drug dealers, rapists and carriers of infectious diseases. Though he continues to respond to the criticism of that remark by saying that he believes he will win the Latino vote, the Post/ABC News poll shows that’s not about to happen.
Trump’s unfavorable ratings among Latinos rose sharply from 60 percent in May to 81 percent now. His favorable ratings are 13 percent among Hispanics, little changed from the previous survey.
The reaction amongst Latinos to Trump compared to Jeb Bush is dramatic: While Trump’s net favorability rating is minus 68 among Hispanics, Bush’s net rating is 15 points more positive than negative (46 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable) .
The poll was taken from July 8 to July 12. It was a random sample of 1,011 adults. The results have a sampling error rate of + or – 3.5 percentage points.
