How Trump went from ‘disgusting’ to ‘great’ in the minds of American voters in just six months

From criminal, evil and crazy to great, strong and good.

Voters’ perceptions of Donald Trump have undergone an extraordinary transformation over the past six months, as the former president gained a lead in the polls and went on to win the election.

Surveys from JL Partners map how word clouds of responses went from negative to positive.

And in their latest poll, about 37 percent of respondents — including 15 percent of Democrats — said they had a more positive view of Trump since the election.

Voters said this was partly because the country would need to unite around a new leader and that they were encouraged by his cabinet choices.

The latest online survey of 1,006 registered voters, conducted three weeks after the election, asked voters to summarize their opinion of the president-elect in one word.

‘Great’ is the word that dominates the resulting word cloud, alongside ‘strong’, ‘good’ and ‘leader’.

‘Bad’, ‘a**hole’ and ‘racist’ all appear, but have faded into the background compared to August’s results.

Go back to June and the results are even more damning. The word cloud contains: Criminal, evil and disgusting.

James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said it was clear that views had changed since the start of the year.

‘This is partly because Donald Trump has run a good election campaign. “He presented strength, while his opponent, in Kamala Harris, presented weakness,” he said.

‘But there is also something in the fact that Trump won the election. In general, we see that people are behind the president, and when asked why that is the most common answer is that we need to unite as a country.”

“It remains to be seen how long that will last in a potentially divisive presidency, but right now voters are excited about Trump and saying let’s give him a chance.”

Trump won a more convincing election victory than most experts expected.

Not only was he the first Republican in two decades to win the popular vote, but he also claimed victory in all seven major battleground states up for grabs.

Since the election, more than a third of registered voters in our poll said they had a more positive view of Trump. However, about 24 percent (including 44 percent of Democrats) said they had a more negative view.

Voters were asked to explain why their opinion of Trump had changed. For

Trump stormed to victory, becoming the first Republican in two decades to win the popular vote

JL Partners then asked respondents to explain in one or two sentences why their opinion had changed.

For those who said things had become more positive, the most common statements included the words: president, America, country and cabinet.

For those who said it had become more negative, the key words were: cabinet, people and racist.

Overall, the survey found that Trump had a higher approval rating than President Joe Biden, although both are in the red with voters.

About 40 percent of voters said they had an unfavorable view of the president-elect, while 30 percent said they had a positive impression, for a net score of minus 10.

For Biden, the numbers were 35 percent disapproving and 22 percent approving, giving a net score of negative 13 points.