President Donald Trump has begun sharing X polls in a desperate bid to prove his own popularity.
A myriad of recent polls suggest that Americans are particularly concerned about the economy, the spiraling war in Iran, and how the president is handling those issues. But not in Trump’s mind.
In an attempt to regain control of the narrative, the 79-year-old shared a screengrab on Truth Social detailing a poll from an X account named “America First Now.”
The account claims to be based in the U.S., but an advisory notice in its account information section warns that the profile manager may “have used a proxy—such as a VPN” to change the country displayed on their profile.
It cites data from a months-old Wall Street Journal poll—then cherry-picks the most flattering numbers, ignoring the bad. In fact, the post completely ignores the WSJ piece’s headline, which was particularly unflattering to Trump. “It’s Trump’s Economy, and Voters Are Unhappy With It,” it read.
The January survey showed Republicans with narrow edges on the economy and inflation (both +6 points) and on tariffs (+2), but the broader picture was far less triumphant.
Voters still rated the economy poorly, Donald Trump’s approval remained underwater, and Democrats held a 47–43 percent lead on the generic congressional ballot. Stripped of that context, the claim that “Donald Trump is crushing it!” appeared more convincing.
The post ended with its own homemade poll. “Simple poll. Please be honest! As of today, how much do you still trust and support this man? A. 100% B. 50% C. 25% D. 0%.”
To drive home his point, the president then shared the results of a survey by John McLaughlin, a pollster with whom he has deep ties.
He has advised Trump for more than a decade, including on his presidential campaigns in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and was involved as early as 2011 in drafting a potential run for the 2012 election.
By 2020, The Hill described McLaughlin and his brother Jim as “Trump’s most trusted pollsters.” More recently, during Hungary’s 2026 election campaign, his firm projected a win for Trump ally Viktor Orbán—who instead lost decisively to the opposition days later.
Trump shared a link to a Newsmax article titled: “McLaughlin Poll: Voters Back Trump on Iran.”
“Despite relentless opposition from left-leaning media, a solid majority of likely voters say military action is justified to protect American lives,” the heavily partisan article, written under the bylines of McLaughlin and his brother, opens.
They claim their poll is reliable because they eschew traditional methods and survey “likely voters” rather than “oversampl[ing] non-voters and dilut[ing] Republican support,” like many public polls allegedly do.
Their poll claims a majority of voters—52 percent—approve of military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, with 40 percent opposed, an apparent improvement from last month.
It puts support among Republicans at 87 percent, while also suggesting backing from 28 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of voters who supported Kamala Harris.
The survey further says approval jumps to 67 percent among those who watched Donald Trump’s address directly, compared to 29 percent opposition, while respondents who relied on media coverage appear far more divided.
“The conclusion is unavoidable: despite media resistance, the American public stands firmly behind stopping a nuclear Iran—and expects the job to be finished,” the brothers concluded.
However, an NBC News poll conducted between March 30 and April 13 yielded starkly different findings. Overall, 63 percent of adults said they disapprove of the president’s performance, with 50 percent strongly disapproving.
Just 33 percent of people approved of the president’s handling of the Iran war, and less than half of those people strongly approved. A striking contrast to the 54 percent who strongly disapproved.
Support for his handling of inflation and the cost of living was even worse, with only 32 percent of adults approving, an eight-point drop since April 2025.
Trump is also losing ground among Republicans. Eighty-three percent of Republicans continued to rate Trump positively, down 4 points from earlier in the year. But the share of Republicans who strongly approve of Trump dropped 6 points, to 52 percent.
That figure, 52 percent, is also the share of adults who think Trump “tells the truth less often” than other people.
Quinnipiac University’s national poll, which was released Wednesday, found that 40 percent of registered American voters support U.S. military action against Iran while 53 percent oppose the war.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “The ultimate poll was November 5th 2024 when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda. No other President in history has accomplished more for the American people than President Trump, who is working tirelessly to create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability, and more. The President has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”
