Donald Trump may have all but secured the Republican nomination for president, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into strong, even basic, popularity with the American electorate. That’s according to new findings released by Public Policy Polling, which compared the real estate magnate’s relative popularity with that of inanimate objects, bugs, medical conditions, dental procedures, and people whom we as a nation reliably despise. The list includes lice, root canals, and Nickelback—the Canadian rock band that has only survived because of the engagement of those who share a collective hate for them:
What did Trump beat in terms of popularity? Cockroaches and hemorrhoids. But he still lagged behind used-car salesmen, traffic jams, and hipsters.
Clearly, Trump still has enthusiastic supporters, and the PPP found that a majority of people who viewed the presidential hopeful favorably also backed his birther theories—65 percent believe President Barack Obama is a Muslim and 59 percent are convinced he was not born in the United States.
The findings come as Republicans scramble to build a unified front to support Trump in the general election. But in doing so, they’ll be backing a candidate who is less popular than invasive bugs and dental surgeries—and a man they themselves once described as “our Mussolini.”
