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U.S. president Donald Trump received four smoking barrels of terrible polling data over the weekend, prompting him to rage against “fake polls from fake news organizations.” According to the president, the purveyors of such data are “enemies of the people” who should be investigated for election fraud.
“They are negative criminals who apologize to their subscribers and readers after I win elections big, much bigger than their polls showed I would win, loose (sic) a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “These people should be investigated for ELECTION FRAUD.”
“And add in the FoxNews pollster while you’re at it,” Trump added.
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According to RealClearPolitics‘ rolling averages of public opinion surveys, Trump’s approval rating went underwater (i.e. more disapproved than approved of his job performance) approximately six weeks ago. Since then, chaos in the stock market has driven his numbers down even further.
As of this writing, 52.4% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance in office compared to just 45.3% who approve. That’s by far the worst spread since Trump took office 100 days ago – and represents a 13.3% swing from polling taken immediately after his second inauguration.
The growing gap was fueled in large part by four new mainstream media polls – CNN, ABC News/Washington Post, New York Times/Siena and CBS – which showed Trump underwater by 14%, 13%, 12% and 10%, respectively. While many questioned those numbers – notably their alleged under-sampling of GOP voters – the president’s slide wasn’t occurring in a vacuum. Even Rasmussen Reports – whose surveys have consistently showed Trump faring better among voters than he is in other polls – had the president underwater by 5% in its latest report.
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Also, the Fox News poll Trump referenced showed him 11% underwater.
Pollster John McLaughlin - a supporter of the president - challenged the ABC/Washington Post and New York Times/Siena polls in particular, accusing them of including too few 2024 Trump voters.
Trump zeroed in on McLaughlin's analysis in bashing the data.
"We don't have a free and fair 'press' in this country anymore," Trump continued on Truth Social. "We have a press that writes BAD STORIES, and CHEATS, BIG, ON POLLS."
"IT IS COMPROMISED AND CORRUPT," Trump continued, accusing the pollsters of suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
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RELATED | THE PARTY OF LOSING
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"There is nothing that anyone, or anything, can do about it," Trump said. "THEY ARE SICK, (and) almost only write negative stories about me no matter how well I am doing."
Veteran pollster Robert Cahaly - who called the 2024 election for Trump - took to social media to challenge the legitimacy of the mainstream media surveys. According to the man known as "the Oracle," the legacy press amplify the findings of "left-leaning universities" to create what amount to self-fulfilling prophecies.
"The credibility the media gives to their own polling which consistently get elections wrong is insane," Cahaly wrote on X. "Anyone who pays attention to election polling know about those (of) us who consistently beat all the mainstream media and left-leaning universities. Now just use your good judgment in deciding which presidential approval and policy polls you should take seriously."
In fairness to Trump (and McLaughlin and Cahaly), had mainstream polling been accurate Hillary Clinton would have been America's first female president - and Kamala Harris would have been its second. Still, there is clearly an across-the-board decline in support for Trump in the aftermath of his tariff battle - something the White House is loathe to acknowledge.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience up to speed on the latest Trump polling data... and the fallout from it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR...
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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