Stephen Colbert Hits Trump Where It Hurts—His E-Score

“The last celebrity to that badly was…syphilis.”

Screenshot: CBS

Earlier this week the New York Times released some new polling data on President Trump, but as Stephen Colbert discovered while combing through it, it’s not the top line approval numbers that are likely to get under Donald Trump’s skin most—it’s his E-score. That’s a metric that television marketers use to measure likability, based on the public’s assessments of dozens of personal qualities.

As a president, Trump has a 41 percent approval rating, but as a celebrity, Colbert points out, his numbers are tanking. Just 14 percent of the poll’s respondents thought the president has “strong positive appeal”, while 39 percent thought he had the opposite, “strong negative appeal.”

The poll also found people associated Trump with the words “aggressive” and “mean” as well as “confident”, “creepy” and “insincere.”

“But here’s the part Trump’s really not going to like. His lowest scores were for the attributes of ‘sexy,’ ‘handsome’ and ‘physically fit,'” Colbert joked. 

 

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate