Former President Donald Trump has earned his highest favorability rating in over a decade from polling conducted by Quinnipiac University, but a higher percentage of voters still view him unfavorably.
In a survey conducted from July 19 to July 21, 46 percent of 1,257 registered voters nationwide said they hold a favorable opinion of Trump. It’s a slight jump from Quinnipiac’s last poll from June 20 to June 24, in which he earned a 44 percent favorability rating. In a survey released at the end of May, 41 percent of registered voters gave the GOP presidential candidate a favorable mark.
Quinnipiac said that the poll released on Monday is Trump’s highest favorability rating since the university “first asked this question of registered voters in May 2015.” At that point, while Trump was fighting for the GOP presidential nomination, only 20 percent of voters said they held a favorable view of him.
In June 2016, less than five months before Trump would go on to win the presidential election, 34 percent of voters indicated that they viewed the former president favorably, per Quinnipiac’s polling.
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Trump’s favorability, however, is still in the negatives. Forty-nine percent of voters surveyed in Quinnipiac’s poll released on Monday said they view Trump unfavorably. According to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis, Trump’s favorability rating is in the negatives by 12.2 percent on average across national polls. As of Monday, 53.8 percent of Americans view the former president as unfavorable, while 41.6 percent favor him.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press team via email for comment Monday night.
Trump’s record favorability rating follows a turbulent few weeks in the 2024 election cycle. President Joe Biden, after a rough first debate performance and facing immense pressure from his own party, ended his reelection campaign Sunday afternoon, and subsequently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee in November.
Trump also faced an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania just two days before the GOP gathered for the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin last week, where the former president officially accepted his party’s nomination. Trump also announced his vice presidential pick, Ohio Senator JD Vance, before the convention kicked off.
Monday’s poll from Quinnipiac found that 62 percent of voters think it was the “right thing” for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. A majority of Democratic voters—54 percent—agreed that the president was right by stepping aside.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters also largely back Harris as their party’s nominee, per Monday’s poll. Forty-five percent said they want the vice president to take Biden’s place when offered a list of 10 possible Democratic candidates, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Quinnipiac’s survey also found that it was “too close to call” a hypothetical race with Trump and Harris as their parties’ respective nominees. Forty-nine percent of voters said they would back Trump, while 47 percent supported Harris. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percent points.
Harris’ favorability rating was also in the negatives in Monday’s poll—37 percent of voters said they view the vice president favorably, while 51 percent said they hold an unfavorable view of Harris.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.