Donald Trump is demanding that pollsters be investigated, accusing them of election fraud after a wave of new polls showed his approval numbers slipping.
The president lashed out Monday on Truth Social, targeting The New York Times, ABC News/The Washington Post, and Fox News—polls that showed his approval at 42%, 39%, and 44%, respectively.
“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.
Trump has a long history of attacking polls that show him in a bad light, while praising the ones that make him look good. But now he’s pushing even further, calling for full-blown investigations into major polling groups. It’s a bold move in his ongoing war with media and political institutions he sees as stacked against him.
In another Truth Social post, Trump shared praise from his own pollster, John McLaughlin, who dismissed the polls as fake. Trump quoted McLaughlin, writing: “Great pollster John McLaughlin, one of the most highly respected in the industry, has just stated that The Failing New York Times poll, and the ABC/Washington Post poll, about a person named DONALD J. TRUMP, ME, are FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.”
“They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump continued, “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!”
In a separate post the same day, Trump escalated the rhetoric: “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!”
One recent ABC/Washington Post poll put Trump at the lowest approval level of any modern president at this point in their term. Meanwhile, a New York Times/Siena poll found that only 31% of people approved of how he handled a deportation case, and just 43% approved of his economic policies.
Polls often vary and are just a snapshot in time. But if Trump’s numbers stay low, it could spell trouble for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms.
