Donald Trump is even more underwater than we thought
Donald Trump treats polls like everything else. If they support him, then they’re terrific and trustworthy. Otherwise, they are wrong and must be shunned. Once upon a time, just the thought of a President of the United States adopting such a childish attitude about polling was unheard of. Trump, however, makes no attempt to hide the fact that this is really what he thinks. It wasn’t long after Trump moved himself, his onesies, and his pacifiers into the White House when he tweeted: “Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election.”
Given Trump’s attitude with polls, he must now believe he’s swimming in a massive sea of fake news. A recent CNN/SSRS poll released Tuesday afternoon found that 6 in 10 Americans believe Trump does not deserve to be reelected in 2020. According to CNN Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta, the results reveal that Trump “outpaces his most recent predecessors at a similar stage in their presidencies.”
Then, ahead of last night’s Democratic debate, an ABC News/Washington Post poll came out yesterday showing that each one of the top Democratic candidates would beat Trump if the general election were held today. Registered voters preferred Vice President Joe Biden (55% to 40%), Sen. Bernie Sanders (52% to 43%), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (51% to 44%), Sen. Kamala Harris (50% to 43%), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (47% to 43%) over Trump in each case. Not surprisingly, Trump began the day on Wednesday — the 9/11 anniversary be damned — by tweeting that this is a “phony suppression poll.” In the meantime, following a similar Quinnipiac poll late last month, CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out Trump’s “historically bad position,” noting that “[n]o incumbent president has ever polled this poorly against his likely challengers at this point in the campaign.”
Even former Sen. Rick Santorum, who emphasized to CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night that “I love 90% of what the President does,” went on to admit that Trump’s recent polling figures “are not good numbers” and that Trump has “got to be concerned.” It turns out the GOP knows this much more than they let on. In a report yesterday, ProPublica shined the light on the fact that — since as far back as the 2016 election – the RNC has been hiding data from local candidates on how their congressional districts’ voters feel about Trump, apparently to shield the thin-skinned demagogue from embarrassment.
Trump wasted no time establishing himself as a big loser with polls. Gallup, which has measured presidential job approval for decades, has also tracked how long it has taken each President to reach majority disapproval. This is how long it took recent past presidents: Ronald Reagan (727 days), George H.W. Bush (1,336), Bill Clinton (573), George W. Bush (1,205), and Barack Obama (936). Here is the number of days it took Trump: 8. That’s not a typo — but more importantly, it’s not fake news.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month