Trump’s popularity soaring after election victory

US President-elect Donald Trump’s popularity has been on the rise ever since his stunning victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on November 8, a new poll finds.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Monday showed that 46 percent of Americans had a very favorable view of Trump, a 9-point rise since the election.
Despite the significant uptick, still 12 percent of the respondents had somewhat unfavorable view of the Republican leader, while 34 percent had a very unfavorable opinion.

Compared to Morning Consult’s survey right before the election, overall unfavorable views of Trump have plummeted by 15 points, from 61 percent to 46 percent.

“Trump’s favorability among voters has reached new highs since he became president-elect,” Morning Consult co-founder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp said, noting that the “honeymoon phase” is common for newly-elected presidents.

President Barack Obama, for example, saw a 20-percent increase in popularity immediately after winning the 2008 vote.

Interestingly, Trump’s transition team also received very positive scores, with 19 percent of voters saying his transition was more organized than any other president in America’s history. Another 34 percent said that the effort was as organized as the previous leaders.

Dropp noted that “many of the initial transition picks including Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions are still largely unknown to Americans.”

According to the poll, more than half of the participants had never heard of, or had no views on, Priebus as Trump’s chief of staff. It was more or less the same about the incoming president’s chief strategist Bannon and Sessions, Trump’s designated attorney general.

Analysts believe that the real popularity test for Trump would begin when he takes office on January 20. Many of his supporters are looking forward to see if the 45th American president would deliver on his many campaign promises.

One of those pledges was scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trump said in a video message on Monday that he would withdraw the US from the world's largest trade deal on his first day in the White House.