Back in December, we asked our panel of Conservative Party member readers of this site how they felt about the outcome of the US presidential election. Overall, 44 per cent were happy about Trump’s victory (17 per cent very pleased, plus 27 per cent pleased), while 31 per cent were unhappy (17 per cent very displeased, plus 14 per cent simply displeased). The remaining quarter said there were neither pleased nor displeased.
This month we’ve returned to the topic, asking 727 respondents to pick one of the following options:
Having Donald Trump as America’s President is a good thing.
It’s too early to pronounce on Donald Trump as America’s President, but the signs are good.
It’s too early to pronounce at all on Donald Trump as America’s President.
It’s too early to pronounce on Donald Trump as America’s President, but the signs are bad.
Having Donald Trump as America’s President is a bad thing.
The results show some slippage at both ends of the scale.
Fifteen per cent believed Trump’s presidency to be a good thing, while 24 per cent said it was too early to pronounce but the signs were good – so a total of 39 per cent giving an overall positive response.
By contrast, 11.7 per cent said Trump’s presidency was a bad thing, with a further 15.8 per cent saying it was too early to pronounce but the signs were bad – giving a total of 27.5 per cent on the negative side of the ledger.
In short, both positive and negative feelings about him seem to have waned since the immediate aftermath of the election. Accordingly, the proportion who gave neither a positive nor negative response – saying it was to early to pronounce at all – has grown to 33.4 per cent, becoming the largest single group. It could be his erratic actions in power, or the intense media war over his every word, but Tories are becoming less, not more, decided about him.