Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November — if so many US voters didn’t find him personally repugnant.

Roughly 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trump’s ability to handle key issues — or the impact of his policies — voters routinely give the Republican candidate higher marks than President Biden.

In a YouGov survey released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that voters routinely name as top priorities — the economy, immigration, and inflation — respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.

Meanwhile, in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 40 percent of voters said that Trump’s policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trump’s reputation for being “tough” on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.

Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase Trump’s small but stubborn lead in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rival’s advantage on the issues.

  • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I think it’s a whole lot simpler than that.

    Trumps presidency was 80% pre-covid, and entirely pre-inflation. Bidens was all covid, all inflation that saw the average person lose 20-30% of their pay.

    This is how stupid and simplistic the average voter is, and it’s why conservative propaganda works so well. Their feelings don’t care about facts.

    • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      And have pretty much always been that way, at least in semi recent memory, and the GOP have used this fact constantly by taking credit for their Dem predecessors’ economic policies and by the time the negative impact of their policies start to be seen, the Dems are back in power and the GOP blames them for the hardship

      The average voter does not and apparently will never understand that economic policy takes years to fully see and feel the impact