WASHINGTON — For months, as Donald Trump lurched from controversy to controversy, commentators marveled that his voters remained loyal: Trump is impervious to political attack, some said.
Not so. Trump wasn't immune; analysts were just failing to look at the whole board.
Controversy over Trump has failed to dent his standing with his core supporters in the Republican primaries, but his image among the rest of the electorate has plunged.
The share of Americans with an unfavorable view of Trump is extraordinary: 68 percent in the most recent Bloomberg poll, 67 percent in the CNN/ORC survey, 67 percent in the ABC/Washington Post poll, 65 percent from Gallup. The 57 percent unfavorable rating he received in the most recent CBS/New York Times survey looks mild by comparison.
Over the past three decades, pollsters have asked the public how it feels about scores of political figures — presidents, would-be presidents, governors, senators, Cabinet officials and others. Not one has been so widely unpopular as Trump is currently.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney briefly hit a 60 percent unfavorable rating during the closing years of the George W. Bush administration. Newt Gingrich's unpopularity exceeded 60 percent briefly during his unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. George H.W. Bush's unfavorable level also hit 60 percent when he went down to defeat in his re-election effort in 1992. None of them hit Trump's level.
More than half of Americans had a negative view of Trump even before his presidential campaign began. Two factors account for how much worse his image has gotten.
He is extremely unpopular among Democrats, with more than 8 in 10 viewing him negatively. But he is also unpopular among many Republican women.
Republican men tend to view Trump favorably, with 61 percent having a positive image of him and 36 percent negative, according to the latest Gallup polling. But among Republican women, the verdict is almost even — 49 percent positive, 46 percent negative, Gallup found.
Overall, that leads to a very large gender gap in perceptions of Trump. Among all women, 70 percent have a negative view of him, while among men, 58 percent do. Having a positive view are 23 percent of women and 36 percent of men, Gallup found.
If Trump wins the GOP nomination, a key question will be whether he can do anything to change those impressions. Usually, however, political candidates' images get worse, not better, during a campaign.