Donald Trump is trying to convince his followers not to believe the latest polling numbers after a state-by-state survey showed his approval rating underwater in 47 of 50 states.
“The Radical Left Democrats are going CRAZY with Fake Polls,” Trump wrote on social media Monday. “They’re putting them out at levels never seen before.”
Trump appeared to be responding to a YouGov/Economist poll released last week that broke down his net approval rating across the country, and the numbers were not exactly flattering.
According to the poll, Trump had a negative approval rating among “adult citizens” in every state except Idaho, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Everywhere else, things looked dire.
And some of the numbers in key battleground states were particularly brutal.
Trump’s net approval rating was -31 in Georgia, -25 in North Carolina, -23 in Arizona, -27 in Nevada, -27 in Michigan, -26 in Pennsylvania and -28 in Wisconsin, according to the Economist’s figures.
Six of those seven states voted for Trump in 2024 after backing Joe Biden in 2020. North Carolina was the exception, having narrowly voted for Trump in both elections.
Even when the poll is narrowed down to people who actually voted in 2024, the picture remains rough. In that smaller sample, Trump’s approval rating was negative in 39 states.
And yes, those same swing states were still underwater.
Trump, however, implored his followers not to believe their lying eyes.
He dismissed the polling as a “demoralization operation,” arguing that Democrats were trying to convince Republicans that the president was unpopular so they would stay home on Election Day.
“The actual Polls are tremendous, and the Spirit in our Country has never been higher,” Trump declared.
He then claimed he was “winning against EVERYONE,” including Iran, whose economy and military he described as being in a “Death Spiral.”
But the polling numbers weren’t going anywhere simply because Trump didn’t like them.
During Monday’s episode of Morning Joe, co-host Jonathan Lemire offered a much shorter interpretation of the data.
“My expert analysis on that polling is: it’s real bad,” Lemire said.
And that’s essentially where the political fight now stands: Trump says the polls are fake and part of an effort to demoralize his supporters.
The pollsters say they’re measuring what voters are telling them.
