Trump Spreads Fake Poll on His ‘Soaring Approval’ Aired By Fox’s Lou Dobbs
President Donald Trump seemed delighted on Thursday when he posted a screen-shot from Lou Dobbs‘ Fox Business show supposedly showing his approval polling is at 55%.
There’s just one little problem: the number is way off, and his actual approval rating according to that poll is a paltry 43%.
The Fox Business host spent a good portion of his show repeatedly fawning over a new poll from the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service on Trump and the economy. Dobbs framed the poll’s findings with the graphic above, saying Trump enjoys “soaring approval” from 58% of voters for his performance on the economy, and an impressive 55% from voters overall.
Here’s what the poll actually says:
While President Trump’s overall unfavorable rating has remained steady at 55 percent since he announced his candidacy in 2015, 58 percent of voters approve of the job he has done on the economy.
To be clear: Trump’s disapproval is 55%, according to that poll. His approval rating, meanwhile, is 43%. That means his numbers are underwater by 12%.
Mo Elleithee, director of Georgetown Politics and a frequent Fox News guest, corrected the president on Twitter:
Whoopsies.
Watch above, via Fox Business.
UPDATE: Fox Business issued an on-air correction to the poll on Thursday morning.
From FBN’s Blake Burman:
It’s been a quite start to the day for President Trump, though he did send out a tweet this morning from the Lou Dobbs show last night on Fox Business. That tweet featured a poll that was not entirely accurate, which Fox Business would like to correct. According to a poll from Georgetown University, 58 percent of respondents approved of the president’s handling of the economy. That portion of the graphic was right. However, the graphic also showed that 55 percent of the respondents approve of the president, that number is not correct. The 55 percent number was those who have an unfavorable impression of President Trump.
[Mediaite]