President Donald Trump flew into a morning tantrum over his disastrous polling numbers.
As Trump’s approval ratings plunge to record lows, he pulled out one of his favorite defenses against humiliating poll figures: insisting they are simply made up.
“My REAL Polling Numbers, not those made up by the Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been,” the president, 80, contested in a Monday morning meltdown, pointing to “the biggest tax cuts and employment numbers EVER, the biggest outside Investment in America in World history, a totally secure Border, a giant Victory in Venezuela, the Denuclearization of Iran, unparalleled respect and success throughout the World, and much more.”
He continued in a similar, ranty vein, “Don’t believe the Radical Left’s Fake Poll numbers. They are Crooked and Corrupt, just like the Country Destroying Dumocrats are Crooked and Corrupt. VOTE REPUBLICAN FOR GREATNESS IN AMERICA!”
It is unclear if a specific poll has rankled the president, or if he is annoyed by several negative surveys that have rocked the White House of late.
Fresh data from CNN puts his approval at a meager 34 percent, matching his post-Jan. 6 trough, while a new AP-NORC poll has him tied at a post-2017 low of 33 percent. Quinnipiac paints an even grimmer picture, dropping him to a career low of 32 percent.
Americans appear to be growing more and more frustrated by the cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing Iran war, which Trump launched in February without congressional approval or public support. It has claimed the lives of 18 American service members.
Indeed, the two are linked. Trump’s war has pushed up the price of fuel, meaning that many essentials are now more expensive. There is a growing fear in the GOP that Americans will vote with their pockets in the November midterm elections.
A CBS News/YouGov poll from last week found that only 24 percent of Americans believe that the Republican Party is helping with the cost-of-living crisis, compared to 36 percent who believe the Democratic Party would. Some 55 percent said the Republican Party actively hurts the cost of living. Thirty-eight percent said the same of the Dems.
On Friday, Nate Silver, the veteran election and poll analyst who created FiveThirtyEight, said Trump’s approval rating has hit a second-term low of 38.2 percent. The numbers guru also found that 58.8 percent disapprove, putting Trump’s net approval rating at minus 20.6 percent. “Timing lines up remarkably well with gas prices and the resumption of hostilities in Iran,” Silver wrote on X.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only one in three Americans support Trump’s war, and that 69 percent of Americans—including four in 10 Republicans—don’t understand what the president is hoping to achieve with the conflict.
Brent crude oil fell by 4.5 percent to $83.98 on Monday following Trump’s tenuous claims of imminent peace talks, after it climbed more than 20 percent last month. U.S.-traded oil was 4.6 percent lower at $80.74. S&P 500 futures are rallying, as are bonds.
Historical Gallup surveys show Bill Clinton boasting a 64 percent approval rating at this point in his second term, with Ronald Reagan at 61 percent and Dwight D. Eisenhower at 58 percent.
Even second-term presidents who were underwater—Barack Obama at 43 percent, Harry S. Truman at 39 percent, and George W. Bush at 37 percent—were doing better, though the parties of all three went on to suffer midterm losses months later. In fact, the only leader in worse shape at this stage was Richard Nixon, who sat at 24 percent as he teetered on the brink of impeachment and resignation.
Trump had a similar meltdown after a spate of poor poll results earlier this summer. “MY REAL POLL NUMBERS ARE THE HIGHEST THEY HAVE EVER BEEN. THANK YOU!!! President DJT,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Denying the obvious is part of Trump’s playbook. “He’s always going to project strength regardless what the numbers are, and he’ll say they’re fake anyway,” Douglas Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, told The New York Times over the weekend.
Asked to comment on what polls specifically are “fake” and what Trump’s “REAL” numbers are, the White House referred the Daily Beast to the exact Truth Social post it was enquiring about.
