Trump’s Unfavorable Spike

Seven in 10 Americans see Donald Trump unfavorably in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, up 10 points in just the past month to a new high since he announced his candidacy for president. But Hillary Clinton reached a new high for unfavorability as well, 55 percent.

The results mark the striking challenges facing both candidates, cementing their position as the two most unpopular presumptive major party nominees for president in ABC News/Washington Post polling dating to 1984. 

 Trump’s result reverses a boost he received after securing the Republican presidential nomination, from 37-60 percent favorable-unfavorable in mid-May to 29-70 percent now, after a week in which he took sharp criticism for suggesting that he was being treated unfairly by a federal judge because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.

Trump’s unfavorable score is a point from his highest on record, 71 percent in late May last year, just before he formally entered the presidential race June 16. His decline in favorability in the past month was broadly based across groups.

Interviews for this survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, were conducted Wednesday through Sunday, almost entirely before the terrorist attack in Orlando and the candidates’ subsequent comments on the tragedy.

Clinton, while less poorly rated than Trump overall, has troubles of her own -- no bounce in favorability after clinching the Democratic contest last week. From a 44-53 percent favorable-unfavorable rating last month, she’s at 43-55 percent now. While that’s within the margin of sampling error, it’s numerically Clinton’s highest disapproval rating on record, in polls dating to her first appearance on the national stage in March 1992.

Trump’s challenge is deeper, though, in terms of strength of sentiment as well as absolute numbers. Just 15 percent of Americans see him “strongly” favorably, while a record-tying 56 percent see him strongly unfavorably – a 41-point negative gap in intensity of sentiment. Clinton’s comparable numbers are 25-39 percent, a 14-point gap.

Looking at registered voters doesn’t change the equation. Trump’s at 31-69 percent favorable-unfavorable in this group, while Clinton’s at 43-56 percent.

Groups

Notably, men overall are disenchanted with both candidates -- a record 63 percent see Clinton unfavorably, while 62 percent say the same about Trump. Among women, by contrast, Trump is far more unpopular -- 77 percent rate him unfavorably, a new high on his part, vs. Clinton’s 47 percent.

Even more striking is Trump’s unfavorability rating among racial and ethnic minorities -- a virtually unanimous 94 percent of blacks see him negatively, as do 89 percent of Hispanics; that declines to 59 percent among whites. Clinton is more unpopular than Trump among whites -- 68 percent see her unfavorably -- but vastly more popular among nonwhites.

Indeed, their virtually even ratings among men conceal a sharp difference between white men, a much more pro-Trump and anti-Clinton group, and nonwhite men, the opposite, even more so.

Results among other groups also are telling. Trump’s rated favorably just by 65 percent of Republicans, Clinton by 75 percent among Democrats -- neither monolithic in their home corner. Independents, often thought of as swing voters (though they don’t always perform that way) don’t like either -- 68 percent see Trump negatively; a similar 63 percent, Clinton.

Trump’s difficulties are further marked by the fact that he’s rated favorably by just 47 percent of conservatives. Clinton, for her part, is seen positively by 59 percent of liberals -- but that means four in 10 in this key Democratic group rate her negatively.

Despite losing young voters to Bernie Sanders by vast margins, there are only minor differences in Clinton’s favorability rating among age groups. The bigger gap is for Trump, rated 15 points more unfavorably by those under 50 (76 percent) than by those 50+ (62 percent).

Methodology

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellphone from June 8-12, 2016, among a random national sample of 1,000 adults. Results have margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS of Media, Pa. See details on the survey’s methodology here.