Anecdotally, I wrote The Case for Biden https://medium.com/politics-fast-and-slow/the-final-case-for-joe-biden-143b4b70c071
and The Case Against Trump https://medium.com/politics-fast-and-slow/the-final-case-against-donald-trump-2cc0b171e153
The Trump piece performed so much better. I think you're right - everybody likes Joe so no need to read about him. Anger and contempt lead people to read about Trump so they can reaffirm their anger and contempt.