Trump complains about the polls…but then screws up and admits he’s just gaslighting
- Jul 6, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 7, 2024
July 6: On This Day In 2020
OTDI 2020, Trump exploded over a Fox News poll that showed him losing in six key swing states. "Fox News gladly puts up the phony suppression polls as soon as they come out," Trump tweeted. "We are leading in the REAL polls because people are sick & tired of watching the Democrat run cities, in all cases, falling apart. Also, now 96 percent Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Another 2016!"
But Trump didn’t mean for THIS to become public. Thinking he was speaking privately, this is how Trump explained his behavior about poll reports: “If it’s bad, I say it’s fake. If it’s good, I say that’s the most accurate poll ever,” he confided to a sympathetic audience at the Conservative Political Action Committee.
It was unusual for Trump to criticize Fox; after all Fox had chosen to help propel him to the top of the GOP. But it wouldn’t be the last time. When Fox projected that Trump lost Arizona – ahead of the news networks – on 2020 election night, Trump went all in on ripping them and severing their relationship. It was mutual, and Fox turned their backs on Trump.
But in 2024, once their preferred candidates like DeSantis faltered, Fox snapped back to Team Trump, and resumed spreading his misinformation: “Fox News stars and Trumpist influencers are priming their audiences to listen if Trump once again claims an election was “rigged” against him — and to come to his aid,” noted @MattGertz, senior fellow for Media Matters for America. (By the way, the relationship between Trump and Fox is so … unusual… that Matt has developed a specialty field of analyzing its twists and turns.)
Dive Deeper
Salon reports on Trump’s blast at Fox News poll
CNN’s report on Trump’s real MO for attacking or not attacking poll results
The 2024 update
Summary: Trump complains about the polls…but then screws up and admits he’s just bulls**tting; admits he lies