Donald Trump insists polls are fake and claims his approval rating is really at 60%

President Donald Trump is brushing off a run of unfavorable surveys ahead of the November midterms, saying his true standing with the public is around 60 percent. Speaking to Byron York of The Washington Examiner, he labeled the numbers "fake" and said he doesn't accept a figure in the high 30s. He leaned on his backing among Republicans and the MAGA base to make his case, according to The Independent.

Published polling tells a different story. RealClearPolitics currently averages 38.8 percent approval against 60.4 percent disapproval. Reuters/Ipsos found 34 percent approving in mid-October, and a later Reuters/Ipsos survey this week put him at 31 percent, his weakest reading across both terms. Pew Research Center had him at 30 percent in early October. A New York Times/Siena College survey also showed 34 percent, which the Times described as the worst for a president this close to midterms since Harry Truman in 1946. The Times said it left out numbers from Wedgewood Research, a firm that admitted inventing results for a social experiment.

Trump pointed to CNN analyst Harry Enten's finding that 98 percent of MAGA Republicans approved in September. Enten also found his net rating on inflation had dropped from +8 to -45.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →