Despite resounding victories on Super Tuesday, there are indications that Donald Trump is still struggling to get strong, united Republican support, which he may need in the presidential election.


Speaking to CNN about the Super Tuesday results, columnist and political commentator Molly Jong-Fast said: "There is a real ‘Never Trump’ contingent, and remember, Trump is a primary candidate. He has only ever tried to appeal to Republican primary voters, and he cannot marshal that group together the way he needs to.

“Part of his trick in 2016 was, he got these low-frequency voters out, these people who almost never voted, which is why the polling was so off, and you’re just not seeing that same type of enthusiasm.”

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The real issue is not Trump’s popularity. It’s that most of the people who vote for him are voting against democrats out of an indoctrinated zealotry. In their twisted views, voting for a traitor, conman, and rapist is preferable to voting blue.

    • evatronic@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Meanwhile, people who agree with 90% of any variation of the Democratic platform will protest vote or stay home to “send a message” or some bullshit.

      • No_Change_Just_Money@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        I mean, as long as they only do so in the primaries, this is a valid behavior.

        In the actual election, however, I strongly suggest voting the lesser of two evils when the other option has cited mein kampf and said they want to be a dictator

        After that, you can still go on the street and demonstrate for the abolishment of the electoral college and a system that only allows two parties to have chances

        • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Voting the lesser of 2 evils is the only option in a 2 man first-past-the-post “democractic” oligarchy.

    • Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Okay, I’m definitely not trying to “both sides” here. I will absolutely be voting for Biden, I wish he was stronger on a few issues but ultimately think he’s done a pretty good job as president. Don’t you think there are a lot of people on the other side of that coin as well, even strategy stated here and elsewhere that people “must” vote for Biden even if it’s just to stop Trump?

      Again, not saying I disagree, while I have reasons to welcome a Biden second term I wish we had better options than a 2020 rematch, and part of me will absolutely be voting for Biden because a second Trump term terrifies me and will likely mean the end of any semblance of democracy we have left.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Well, sure, but look at what you’re saying. You’re going to vote for someone who you think is decent, but not everything you want, because your other option is a guy who has been convicted of corporate fraud and rape, who has 91 felony indictments, who tried to overthrow the government and was the first president in history to refuse a peaceful transfer of power. The people we’re talking about on the other side are voting for that guy because he’s not a Democrat.

  • Lexam@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Doesn’t matter. Vote like he is and make sure to keep him out!

  • ainokea@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Articles like this scare me as it may cause people to not vote. We need people out there voting to protect our rights.

    • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This. All the protest and sit out votes might as well have him back in the oval office. Guess who’s gonna whine the loudest when that happens?

  • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’ve noticed a lot of conservatives don’t have the same full-throated support for Trump this time that they did in 2016. For instance, he lost a ton of gun owner support when he started talking about “taking the guns first, and letting the courts sort it out later,” and then going on to sign the bump-stock ban. I’ve seen some of those people go from rabid Trump fan-boys to kind of sneering whenever they hear his name. I suspect a lot of them are going to end up falling in line come November, but I wouldn’t be shocked if there were a fair few people casting protest votes as well.

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’ve seen some gun people really be distraught by the fact he was convicted for sexual assault. Rightly so! For no other candidate in my life time would this be tolerated.

  • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The polling wasn’t off in 2016, it was actually super accurate and missed the result by only one point.

    Trump isn’t popular, but he doesn’t need to be, he just needs to be less unpopular than Biden, and right now polling is suggesting that he is exactly that.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.eeOP
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      9 months ago

      Do you remember 2016? Most pollsters picked Hillary to win. It was not “super accurate”. Most people were shocked by the outcome.

      And no, Trump isn’t “less unpopular” than Biden. That’s the point of the article. Based on the current polls, Trump should not be struggling at all against a centrist candidate that no one knows (Nikki Haley). That’s like a pro team having trouble beating a college team. It’s not good and shows large problems.

      Biden only has pressure from the left, and there isn’t even a candidate that can stand against him. The “no one” votes, are mainly people saying they want a generic progressive who doesn’t exist right now. In the general election, it’s much harder to overcome centrists who dislike you than right or left wing voters.

      • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I remember. The polls were accurate. The pundits were not. People were shocked because they didn’t want to believe that there are really that many loathsome morons around, not because they looked at what polls said.

        Here are the main polls for that race on the eve of the election. What they actually said was that the race was close to a tossup, with Clinton perhaps very slightly favoured to win.

        Here and here are favourability ratings. As you can see, Trump’s are substantially less negative.

        • Malek061@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Trump is going to fade the more in public he is. He is losing his mind and he fact he shits his pants and wears a diaper is starting to catch on. That’s really going to hurt him. Careful with real clear politics, they were bought by right wing billionaires.

          • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            The RCP website is full of garbage partisan puff pieces. But a poll average is just a poll average. It was super close in the 2022 midterms.

            I don’t know how anyone could’ve missed that Trump is moron, but if voters are indeed only now catching on, there’s no sign of it yet in polling.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.eeOP
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          9 months ago

          You are comparing “approval” ratings with “favorability” ratings. Trump has no favorability ratings because he’s not in office. These are not the same.

          Biden’s “favorability” is lower because there are people who want him to be more progressive. That doesn’t mean they won’t vote for him in a race against Trump.

          You can’t use “favorability” to gauge whether people will vote because it compares the candidate to a mythical generic person. The ballot doesn’t ask “do you like what Joe Biden is doing?” it asks “do you prefer Biden or Trump?”

          Those are very different questions. Biden will pull ahead once people actually think about Trump being president. It’s not a hypothetical like in 2016. He was president and he lost in 2020.

          • Doc Avid Mornington@midwest.social
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            9 months ago

            That doesn’t mean they won’t vote for him in a race against Trump.

            I’ve seen a lot of them say they won’t. I’ve seen people who I know in the past have argued that we have to support Clinton or Biden in the general election, because Trump is worse, and even campaigned for the lesser-evil candidate, turn around and say they can’t support Biden this time. I don’t know if they will reconsider, as the election gets closer, or when faced with reality of a ballot in front of them - I certainly hope so - but I’m not taking any vote for granted in this election.

            As an aside, while the violence against Palestinians has really caught people’s attention, I don’t know why people seem more mad at Biden this time than last time, or more mad than they were at Clinton. There hasn’t been a president in the last few decades at least who would have handled the situation better; on other issues, Biden has proven much better than I expected when I held my nose and voted for him last time; and Trump is a cornered animal, much more dangerous this time around.

          • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I wasn’t saying favourability ratings should be used to predict elections. For that you have polls (in which Trump has a substantial but not decisive lead). I was just responding to the comment about who is more unpopular.

            I think that people who respond to pollsters overwhelmingly know that Trump was president before, and clearly it doesn’t bother them what a train wreck that presidency was. It’s not clear to me how they would suddenly start realizing that closer to election day.

  • horsey@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Otherwise powerful politicians still act like they’ll literally die if they stop sucking his knob, though. Not clear why but it will be nice whenever that’s over.

  • FiniteBanjo
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    9 months ago

    I don’t care how unpopular he really is, the problem is the RNC is set to win the presidential election with only 2 swing state victories.

    That’s about 5 times as popular as I would prefer him to be.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    So, hey, isn’t this like that one time where you guys thought he had no way of winning but kinda sorta won anyway?

  • dyathinkhesaurus@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Does it matter if they’ve got that Christi-fascist god-bothering speaker of the house to install him anyway, regardless of the election outcome? It sounds like the more rabid gop members are Russian sock puppets, he’ll just be the head sock puppet…

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Probably true, but I refuse to click on any Newsweek links. They’ve become a completely sensationalist rag.

  • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The magas are gonna vote trump come hell or high water. The never trumpers should do the same. It’s not everyone else’s problem, and believing they have the numbers so I can sit it out is what got him in the office the first time.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    In 2016 the DNC convinced a lot of voters not to show up because they had a presumptive nominee before the primary. In 2020 we had a real primary.

    This year we were supposed to have a real primary because Biden had promised to be a one term president but he reneged on the deal - leaving us with, again, a pre-decided, generally unpopular, presumptive nominee.

    I’m voting for him, but Joe Biden isn’t as popular as everyone thinks.

  • Binzy_Boi@supermeter.social
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    9 months ago

    I mean, he has been underperforming compared to the margins he was supposed to win by in a number of polls. Can’t recall off hand, where it was specifically and which polls, but I think he scored 28 points lower than what the polls anticipated in one area.

        • fluxion@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          What does that have to do with Trump beating Biden in polls? The article premise regarding primaries is not reflected in the general election polling.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Those polls also put Hillary ahead by a mile. I’d rather see the opposition think they have to fight, so they, you know, actually fucking fight instead of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

        • FiniteBanjo
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          9 months ago

          TBF, those polls were biased against Trump. And now they’re showing he is ahead. That alone should be pretty alarming.