100 Days After Leaving the White House, Trump's Brand Continues to Backslide

Presidents—even divisive ones—have historically shared one consolation prize when they leave office: As time moves on, Americans tend to take an increasingly generous view of them. A few years ago, Gallup conducted a poll asking Americans what they thought of nine former presidents, and nearly all of them enjoyed a good measure of reputation recovery. Jimmy Carter’s approval rating was a dismal 34% when he left office, for instance, but that number rose to 56% in his post-White House years. Even Richard Nixon, shamed into resigning over Watergate, saw his approval rating eventually rise from 24% to 33%. This calculus takes on an added dimension in the case of former President Donald Trump. It's not just because he is the country’s most recent former chief executive. It's because "Trump" is a brand in every sense of the word. Long before Trump became a president, he was a real estate brand, an entertainment brand and a brand name licensed to products that ranged from cologne to mail-order steaks. But according to a study just released from the consultancy Brand Keys, the Trump business brand has continued to lose its luster. Whatever restorative value presidents might enjoy after office, it thus far doesn’t appear to be happening with this one. The "value" of a former chief Brand Keys measured Trump’s overall “brand value,” a metric based on polling data and statistical analyses, and found the figure has slipped in the four categories in which he still does business. The firm compared the results of polls taken in October 2020, three months before Trump left office, and April 2021, two months after his departure. The 45th president’s biggest loss was in the hotel sector, where his 34% brand value rating slipped to 28%. In the categories of TV entertainment and country/golf clubs, Trump’s brand slipped 5 points, from 49% to 44% and 30% to 25%, respectively. And lastly, Trump’s real estate name value fell 4 points, from 30% to 26%. The paradox at work here is that, while Trump used his marketing prowess as a lever to succeed in politics, his politics for the most part only harmed his businesses. A long, slow slide Not long into Trump’s presidency, consumers began abandoning brands that bore his name. The early slippage in the value of his brands, Brand Keys president and founder Robert Passikoff said, had “mostly political ramifications, with a dollop of extreme ego thrown in. Now, only four of the original nine product categories Brand Keys tracked remain where we can measure Trump’s human-brand efficacy.” In fact, Trump's brand had begun to suffer even before he took office. “The Trump brand has lost the confidence of people who can afford to stay at one of his hotels, play at one of his country clubs or purchase a home in one of his developments,” observed Politico in January 2016, a full year before his inauguration. Four week’s into Trump’s term, the president's comments about Mexican immigrants prompted many companies to sever their ties with him, including Nascar, Macy’s and NBCUniversal. Backlash over the notorious 2005 hot-mic recording of Trump gave rise to a sweeping boycott, led by #GrabYourWallet, which eventually led to 18 retailers dropping Trump products and Ivanka Trump shutting down her brand in 2018. The following year, six New York buildings wearing a Trump sign took the name down. When the president whipped up attendees of a Jan. 6 rally that boiled over into an attack on the Capitol building, many observers believed that the Trump brand had reached its nadir. “The events have cemented a terminal threat to the survival of what was left of the Trump brand,” Eric Schiffer, serial entrepreneur and regular business contributor to CNN, told Adweek two days after that attack. “It is currently melting down in a dumpster fire.” Longer-term liabilities Yet even dumpster fires eventually burn themselves out. Though Trump’s net worth dropped by a third while he was in office, Forbes still estimated his net worth at $2.5 billion in February. But Brand Keys’ study featured another measure of his brand’s erosion that may ultimately be more troubling in the long term. Personality-driven brands live or die based on the associations that consumers have with their names. And while the Trump brand was associated with wealth and luxury for years, the top five values that consumers associate with it now include “egotistical,” “divisive” and “selfish.” Whether or not it indicates an awareness of the diminished value of the Trump name, last month the former president launched a new official website called 45Office.com. Together with SaveAmerica45.com (Trump's political action committee) and @WhiteHouse45 (Trump's archived tweets), the site suggests that Trump himself may now have more faith in his presidential number than his name. Exclusive: Trump’s Name, Once a Brand, Is Now a Banner of Extremism