Trump Melts Down Over Plummeting Popularity, Says Pollsters Are ‘Criminals’
President Donald Trump is fuming after a series of recent polls have found that his favorability rating among Americans has continued to drop — in some cases into the thirties.
In a wild rant on Monday, the president even wrote on Truth Social that certain pollsters are “criminals” and “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 a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse,” Trump wrote. “They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, and there is nothing that anyone, or anything, can do about it. THEY ARE SICK, almost only write negative stories about me no matter how well I am doing (99.9% at the Border, BEST NUMBER EVER!), AND ARE TRULY THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
Trump appears to be referencing polls showing his popularity tanking just months into his second administration. An Associated Press/NORC poll released on Saturday and Sunday Washington Post/ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday both found that Trump’s approval rating is currently sitting at 39 percent, down markedly from where it was at the beginning of his term.
Several other polls published last week and over the weekend had Trump’s approval rating in the low forties, with Americans — including Republicans — growing increasingly wary of how he is handling practically every major issue, from immigration to the economy. A New York Times/Siena College poll published last week put his approval at 42 percent, while CNN/SSRS put it at 41 percent and even Fox News has the president sitting at 44 percent.
Trump griped last week on Truth Social about a Fox News poll showing his handling of the economy, which he has thrown into chaos with his unhinged tariff regime, isn’t very popular. Polls released by Reuters and Gallup yielded similar results.
“Rupert Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his FoxNews, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so,” he wrote on Thursday. “This ‘pollster’ has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years. Also, and while he’s at it, he should start making changes at the China Loving Wall Street Journal. It sucks!!!”
By Monday morning, the president was livid, adding on Truth Social that these were “FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS,” and that the results being produced by pollsters were “unheard of numbers unless looking for a negative result, which they are.”
“We don’t have a Free and Fair “Press” in this Country anymore. We have a Press that writes BAD STORIES, and CHEATS, BIG, ON POLLS. IT IS COMPROMISED AND CORRUPT. SAD!” Trump wrote in a seperate post.
The president’s desire to punish pollsters is not theoretical. In December, Trump sued the Des Moines Register and famed Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer over the publication of a poll that incorrectly predicted a victory for Kamala Harris in the state shortly before the 2024 election. Trump has also leveled frivolous lawsuits against several prominent media companies, often pressing for settlements that benefit his companies and trusts.
Despite the threats, it’s clear Americans increasingly think the country is headed in the wrong direction under Trump, and no amount of Truth Social posts can mask the decline in approval.
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