[pmyteh]

Trump was never popular, at least if you define 'popular' as having positive approval ratings. Maybe in inauguration week. Not afterward[0]. He was obviously popular with some people, but not the country as a whole.

Not sure why reading a censored German press would give you an accurate view of public opinion, either; and the German citizens' writings will vary depending on which citizens you read, and how circumspect they were about writing.

[0]: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/...

[adnzzzzZ]

Well, isn't it convenient that most of the information coming out of Germany isn't useful because the bad man had his hands on it? I'm sure in the future historians will also disregard most of the information coming out of Trump supporters as part of the misinformation campaign, conspiracy theories, etc, and only the official narrative will be regarded as valid, because that's how history goes.

Since you recommended me a book, I recommend you this book in return https://www.amazon.com/Human-Smoke-Beginnings-World-Civiliza...

[pmyteh]

No, it's extremely inconvenient that we can't straightforwardly compare public opinion in authoritarian countries with non-authoritarian ones. FWIW the consensus in political science is that the Trump white house has substantially increased levels of misinformation (though there has been a decent amount under previous administrations), and that his popularity is genuine and enduring, though balanced by a larger genuine and enduring unpopularity.

I didn't intend to recommend a book - the link is just a graph of Trump's approval polls over time - but I thank you for yours. I'm not a particularly big fan of 'official narratives', not least because I study issue frames and so many of them are self-serving.