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18 September 2020

“Sleepy Joe” is no “Crooked Hillary”: data suggests Trump’s 2020 strategy is falling apart

Trump’s nickname for Clinton conceptualised all that she was to a lot of Americans. The same cannot be said for “Sleepy Joe”.

By Ben Walker

Donald Trump’s slogans, nicknames and quips were a major feature of his 2016 presidential run. However, Google search data shows he is struggling to make the same impact this year.

Political slogans can make a huge difference in shaping voter perceptions of the issues at stake in an election. In Britain in recent times, one can think of the Labour Party’s “Cost of Living Crisis” or Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done”: simple themes that broke through and caught the attention of the politically disengaged.

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