I dont see that popularity reflected anywhere.

Drive around most of the counties that he won and I bet you’ll see Trump/Vance signs all over people’s yards.

(seems like everyone was predicting he’d lose)

I’d been reading everywhere that he was the predicted winner by most polls and other major predictions leading up to the election. Harris enjoyed a surge of popularity after taking the nomination, which was considered by most people to be surprising, which then dwindled. I really think you’d have to confine yourself to a liberal echo-chamber, or to have stopped reading about it shortly after the DNC, to think that everyone was predicting that he would lose. Harris was seen as having a chance and I think that Trump won by more than he was expected, but he was the clear favorite by time the election happened.

I think that it’s actually a testament to how loathed he is by so many people that Harris was even seen as having a chance in this election. Most of the time, the party in power would lose any election that happened in this economy. Most of the time, the party in power would lose any election where it looked like they had been covering up the cognitive decline of the incumbent, who was then replaced at the last minute by their VP.