January 25, 2018
Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. Image credit: Trump Hotels
According to a new study, hospitality group Trump Hotels has the widest gap in net favorability between Democrats and Republicans.
Topping Morning Consult’s “Most Polarizing Brands in America” list, the hotel brand founded by President Donald Trump is looked at far more positively by those in his own Republican party. Throughout his campaign and first year in office, the politician’s actions and words have been intensely controversial, impacting reception of his hospitality chain among those with differing political views.
Morning Consult’s first Most Polarizing Brands in America rankings were based on surveys conducted with more than 300,000 U.S. adults between October 2017 and January 2018.
Politicized brand
Per the research, there is a 78 percent difference in favorability for Trump Hotels between Democrats and Republicans. The hospitality company is the least popular brand among Democrats, with 55 percent holding an unfavorable view of the brand.
Most of the brands rising to the top of the rankings are in the media or entertainment space, with CNN, Fox News, NBC News and the New York Times rounding out the top five. With the exception of Fox News, these news outlets are more heavily favored by Democrats.
In recent months, a number of hotel properties bearing the Trump name have fought to remove the brand association. So far, hotels in New York's SoHo neighborhood, Toronto and Panama have sought to separate themselves from the Trump name (see story).
The Trump hotel in Panama is working to abandon the Trump name and disassociate from the Trump Organization. Image credit: Trump Organization
Trump Hotels’ social media accounts have also become a platform for partisan dissent (see story).
The president’s divisiveness is extending to the financial sector.
Similar to most of the United States, affluent investors are split on Donald Trump's presidency, specifically over the effect the administration will have on investment portfolios of the wealthy in the years ahead.
While President Trump’s decisions so far have been fairly clear about favoring the rich, a report from Personal Capital shows that investors with $500,000 or more in assets are split almost exactly down the middle on how the stock market will perform over the next year. Slightly less than half believe that 2018 will be better than 2017, while slightly more than half believe it will not be (see story).
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