COMMENTARY: Polls are again showing their bias when it comes to Donald Trump’s popularity
February 11, 2017 - 9:00 pm
Liberals and the mainstream media (I know, I repeat myself) keep talking about “fake news.” That’s because they invented the genre.
Exhibit A is President Trump’s popularity. If you watch or read the mainstream news, you’d think Trump is not only unpopular, but the most unpopular new president ever. Really?
During the 2016 presidential election, almost every poll showed Trump losing badly. All the political “experts” got it wrong, because they believed the polls.
But I knew the polls were flawed. They were almost all oversampling Democrat voters. If you’re including far more Democrats in the poll than Republicans, of course the poll results will be negative to Trump.
The same polls that oversampled Democrats to show Trump was losing the election badly are now repeating the scam.
Unpopular? He’s the first president in history to actually do what he promised to do. In a matter of three weeks, he’s already passed, proposed or signed much of the agenda on which he campaigned. Trump is remarkable. Why would that make him unpopular?
Americans voted for cuts in taxes and regulations … for the repeal of Obamacare … for a wall to be built along our southern border … for an end to lawless “sanctuary cities” … for a president tough on radical Islam … for a president willing to impose “extreme vetting” on immigrants from countries that breed terrorism … for a president willing to kill bad trade deals. Trump has already taken action on all of that.
I predicted a Trump victory based on just a handful of accurate and fairly sampled polls — such as Rasmussen. And also from speaking to a broad cross section of middle-class Americans. The people I spoke to were wildly supportive of Donald Trump. I knew most polls were wrong.
Today that same broad cross section of middle-class Americans is thrilled with Trump’s first three weeks. They think he’s fantastic. They think he’s the first politician who ever kept his word. Based on this response, he could be the most popular new president ever.
Now let’s look at a few facts from reliable polls.
A Feb. 10 Rasmussen Reports Daily Tracking Poll shows 53 percent of likely voters approve of President Trump.
Meanwhile:
— A strong majority approves of Trump’s temporary ban on refugees and visas from seven Muslim nations.
— Trump calls “radical Islamic terrorism” America’s No. 1 enemy. A strong majority agrees.
— A majority of voters predict Trump will be a better “jobs president” than Barack Obama.
— Forty-six percent of voters think the country is headed in the right direction, versus only 28 percent a year ago under Obama.
Morning Consult/Politico backs up Rasmussen. Its polling shows Trump’s travel ban is popular, with 55 percent of Americans approving and 38 percent against. The only Trump executive order more popular is the one defunding sanctuary cities. Americans support that idea by a landslide margin of 55-33.
But the media choose to showcase only protests against Trump. They deliver “fake news” by ignoring the “Silent Majority” and focusing only on a loud, radical minority. That’s the definition of “fake news.”
Wayne Allyn Root (Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com) is a best-selling author and host of “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now. His R-J column runs Thursday and Sunday.