Donald Trump is the first president-elect in 28 years to be graded lower than the candidate he beat

Donald Trump, graded lower than Hillary Clinton in post-election survey

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 21 November 2016

"For most voters, the 2016 presidential campaign was one to forget," the Pew Research Center says in presenting quadrennial post-election survey results. There is some decent news for President-elect Donald Trump: Half the 1,254 voters surveyed Nov. 10-14 say they are happy he won the presidential election, while 48 percent are unhappy, and 56 percent say they expect him to have a successful first term (including 97 percent of his supporters; 76 percent of Hillary Clinton supporters say Trump will be unsuccessful). Both those are more or less in line with previous presidents-elect.

But Trump also earned one unwelcome distinction:

Voters' 'grades' for the way Trump conducted himself during the campaign are the lowest for any victorious candidate in 28 years. Just 30 percent of voters give Trump an A or B, 19 percent grade him at C, 15 percent D, while about a third (35 percent) give Trump a failing grade..... For the first time in Pew Research Center post-election surveys, voters give the losing candidate higher grades than the winner. About four-in-10 (43 percent) give Clinton an A or B, which is comparable to the share giving Mitt Romney top letter grades in 2012 (44 percent) and 13 percentage points higher than Trump's (30 percent). [Pew]

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.