Donald Trump screws up and admits how popular President Obama is
Donald Trump is obsessed with the fact that President Obama is more popular and more accomplished than he’ll ever be, and that obsession grows more toxic by the day. Trump is now trying to unilaterally gut every one of Obama’s achievements, out of pure jealous spite, no matter how many Americans are hurt in the process. Now Trump has blown his own cover by not only admitting to his obsession with Obama, but admitting to just how popular Obama is.
Trump went on a radio show and began flat out lying about his own poll numbers in oddly specific fashion, as flagged by Canadian journalist Daniel Dale (link). Trump claimed that his approval rating was at 47% in the Rasmussen poll, when it was actually at 41% (and far worse in other polls). Then he lied about President Obama having left office with a 46% approval rating, when it was actually closer to 60%. Then came the part where Trump really blew it.
Trump tried to make the case that because his own approval rating is at 47% (even though isn’t anywhere close to 47%), this means he’s very popular. But the only way he could do it was to assert that President Obama’s imaginary 46% approval rating made Obama “very popular.” Trump then seemed to realize he’d screwed up by admitting that Obama was very popular, because he quickly tacked on “I don’t know why he was popular, but I guess he was popular.”
On some level, this is merely yet another instance of Donald Trump pathologically lying, in an attempt to convince himself that he’s not as hated as he is. But on another level it reveals just how deeply obsessed Trump is with President Obama, how much time he spends thinking about him, and how profoundly jealous he is. Trump is now desperate enough to admit that Obama is “very popular” just so he can use a series of made-up numbers to claim he’s equally popular.
