Culture

To The Surprise Of No One, Trump Is Refusing To Accept Newly Released Low Approval Ratings As Reality

Donald Trump will never “pivot” away from his problematic Twitter habits, as demonstrated by increasingly alarming presidential tweetstorms — like that time he caused “World War III” to trend on the social media platform. By itself, an example like this should be enough to cause concern. Yet his latest string of complaints — this time about a new CNN/ORC poll revealing his low approval rating — demonstrate Trump’s inability to accept any information counter to what he believes or how he chooses to act.

Per Brian Stelter’s observation, Trump’s latest tirade came half an hour after CNN’s David Chalian reported on the results of a new CNN/ORC poll, which determined 53 percent disapproved of the president’s job thus far. 44 percent disagreed. The same poll also revealed a “slim majority” of Americans, 53 percent, were opposed to the controversial travel ban. However, to make matters worse Chalian compared Trump’s numbers to his predecessors, who enjoyed much greater approval ratings during their first few weeks in office.

“Look at that 44 percent number through history,” he said of Trump’s low approval rating. “How it compares to all of the previous presidents for which we have polling? It’s way at the bottom here. Look at these honeymoons that Obama, Kennedy, Eisenhower and Carter had. President Trump, 44 percent — no honeymoon whatsoever.” Predictably, Trump’s response to Chalian’s report wasn’t all that positive.

“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting,” he exclaimed, adding in a subsequent tweet he “[calls his] own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it.” Everything else, the president continued, are just “lies” by “some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize.”

We cannot prove exactly whether or not Trump was actually responding to the CNN/ORC poll, though his penchant for tweeting reactions to news coverage is well documented. Not to mention his past reliance on positive polling for promotional purposes during the election. As Newsmax Media chief executive and Trump friend Chris Ruddy told the New York Times, “I think, in his mind, the success of this is going to be the poll numbers.”

Finally, based on another Trump tweet this morning, it looks as though someone may be a little bothered by all of the reports about Steve Bannon being the real person in control of the White House.

(Via CNN, Brian Stelter and New York Times)