Americans have choice words for Trump
Donald Trump has been on the giving and receiving end of name-calling, from coining “Crooked Hillary” Clinton to “Little Marco” Rubio during the 2016 campaign to himself being called a “dotard,” an arcane insult lobbed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
But what words would average Americans use to sum up Trump, in the anonymity of a survey interview? A new Washington Post-ABC News poll sought to find out by asking a random sample of 1,002 adults, “what one word best describes your impression of Trump?”
The top group, at 9 per cent, described Trump as “strong,” “determined” or “bold.”
But three of the top five categories include far harsher words including “arrogant,” “incompetent” and “idi- otic,” each chosen by between 6 and 8 per cent of adults.
Another 6 per cent praise Trump as “good,” “great” or the “greatest,” but the rest of the top 10 categories tilt more negative, going from “bad” to “buffoon” to a word that starts with “a” and ends with “hole.” Some 2 per cent call Trump a racist or a Nazi.
The prevalence of intense, personal one-word insults of Trump are somewhat more acidic than criticisms of Barack Obama in the run-up to his 2012 reelection bid.
Then, the most common negative words Americans offered included “failed,” “incompetent,” “disappointing,” “liar” and “socialist.” In another contrast, Trump’s biggest positive relates to strength, while Obama’s included “good” and “tries” at that time.
Turning back to Trump, the rest of the top 20 one-word descriptions is filled with more positive or neutral terms, including those complimenting Trump’s “honesty” or “patriotism.”
Others describe Trump as “outspoken” and say the word “change,” relatively neutral terms but more often cited by his supporters.
Altogether, 51 per cent of Americans’ one-word descriptions of Trump have a traditionally negative connotation while less than half as many are clearly positive, 23 per cent, and 18 per cent offer a neutral oneword term for Trump.