#Trumpertantrum: Donald Trump Most Unpopular Presidential Candidate In Decades
Amidst the trending anti-Donald Trump hashtag #Trumpertantrum, a Gallup Poll suggests that Donald Trump is the most unpopular U.S. presidential candidate since the 1992 election campaign.
According to the Gallup Poll organization, the New York businessman — still the GOP front-runner if the New Hampshire polls are in any way accurate — is viewed unfavorably by 60 percent of America, while in comparison Democrat Hillary Clinton has a 52 percent unfavorable rating.
“[Trump] he has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when we began to track favorability using the current format,” Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport claimed about Trump’s negative image.
Trump rallies continue to fill stadiums to the max, however, such as the one ongoing tonight in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Clintons’ political hometown, which according to the Drudge Report has broken an attendance record originally set by the ZZ Top band. Instead of reading from a teleprompter, the ex-Celebrity Apprentice star engages in a stream-of-consciousness riff at each of these events.
Trump has also supposedly been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to various media accounts, although this is unconfirmed and may be a hoax or just part of the anti-Trump pileon.
The #Trumpertantrum hashtag is currently trending after The Donald took to his Twitter feed to call for a do-over in the Iowa Caucus. According to Trump, there should be new election because Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign deliberately spread false rumors that Dr. Ben Carson was dropping out and that influenced voter decisions at the last moment, thereby rendering the presumed accurate pre-caucus polls incorrect.
Carson is still actively campaigning in New Hampshire, although several other candidates such as former Gov. Mike Huckabee, ex-Senator Rick Santorum, and Senator Rand Paul have suspended their campaigns, which is political speak for dropping out of the presidential sweepstakes.
Trump also criticized Cruz for a controversial mailer that might have intimidated voters into showing up at their caucus site.
“Ted Cruz did not win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all the polls are so wrong and why he got more votes than anticipated,” declared Trump on Twitter. He has even floated the idea of suing over the Iowa results, although likely nothing will come of it.
In terms of delegates to the nominating convention in the summer, Iowa gave eight to Cruz and seven to Trump, so the difference between first and second place was almost meaningless. Moreover, on a historical basis, the Iowa Caucus seldom forecasts the Republican presidential nominee for the general election.
Twitter obviously did not react kindly to Trump’s tweetstorm, however, hence the trending hashtag.
Donald Trump says Ted Cruz stole victory in Iowa caucuses https://t.co/6YbQhQ860T pic.twitter.com/iaNJZriMuM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 3, 2016
There have also been a lot of eyebrows raised over the circumstances surrounding Hillary Clinton’s narrow, sort-of victory over Bernie Sanders in Iowa, which included some miraculous coin-flip outcomes, but it’s unclear if Senator Sanders, the Vermont socialist running for president as a Democrat, will ever demand a recount.
Although the so-called gold standard Des Moines Register predicted that Trump would finish in first place, he wound up in second behind Cruz. Florida Senator Marco Rubio finished third and has since started to gain significant momentum among voters who are less than enamored with the rhetorical war of attrition ongoing between Cruz and Trump.
Recent elections have demonstrated that pollsters are often getting it wrong.
TONIGHT 7pET: @realDonaldTrump accuses @tedcruz of 'fraud' during the Iowa caucus #greta @FoxNewshttps://t.co/YzCaKv81QE
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) February 3, 2016
Trump has also acknowledged that boycotting the GOP debate in Des Moines nationally televised by the Fox News Channel may have cost him support along with his campaign lacking the same kind of get-out-the-vote field organization as Team Cruz put together.
“Iowa entrance polls showed most voters who made up their minds in the final days before the caucuses settled on chief rival Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, not Trump. The nationwide GOP front-runner had skipped Thursday’s Fox News debate due to an ongoing feud with the network,” CNN reported.
Donald Trump hosted a fundraiser for U.S. military veterans down the street from the debate venue instead, which raised $6 million.
Setting aside the Trump #trumpertantrum bashing on Twitter, and whether you like him or hate him, do you think that Donald Trump has a legitimate beef with Ted Cruz over how the Iowa Caucus turned out?
[Photo by Matt Rourke/AP]
