Donald Trump Gets Slammed On Twitter For Hyping ‘52% Overall’ Approval Rating Amid Jacksonville Tragedy
Mere hours after the tragic shooting at a Madden NFL 19 tournament in Jacksonville that, as of this writing, has killed three people including the suspected gunman, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to talk about his supposedly high approval ratings with Republican voters and in general, and to denounce the “Fake News Media” for trying to make him look like a villain. That didn’t sit well with many of his followers, who felt that the president was being tone-deaf by focusing on approval ratings at a time when the nation is mourning.
“Over 90 percent approval rating for your all-time favorite (I hope) President within the Republican Party and 52 percent overall. This despite all of the made up stories by the Fake News Media trying endlessly to make me look as bad and evil as possible. Look at the real villains, please!” read Trump’s tweet, which was posted at around 8:40 p.m. on Sunday.
A few hours before that, but shortly after the Jacksonville shooting, Trump posted another tweet, where he accused “Mainstream Media” of trying to rewrite history by crediting his accomplishments to former President Barack Obama and his administration. That tweet also had Trump saying that the economy has been “booming” since his presidency started and referring to the U.S. economic recovery under Obama the “weakest” since the Great Depression.
So far, both tweets have received largely negative feedback from Donald Trump’s followers, many of whom have wondered why the president has yet to comment on the Jacksonville shooting. While most of the comments on the earlier tweet argued with Trump’s definition of a booming economy, some made reference to Jacksonville, with one user, in particular, saying that it’s funny Trump has the time to boast about his accomplishments but “can’t even post a tweet” about a national tragedy.
The second tweet, on the other hand, has gotten more angry responses from Twitter users referencing Jacksonville and accusing Donald Trump of prioritizing his approval rating instead of reacting to the mass shooting.
“Trump is the real villain. Young people are dead and he only cares about himself,” tweeted one of Trump’s more notable detractors, former Vanderbilt University physician Eugene Gu, in response to the president.
“Come to think of it, Trump has no humanity for young people at all. He even stripped immigrant children from their parents and tossed them into internment camps.”
Jacksonville city council member Reginald Gaffney responds to the fatal shooting in his city by saying, “The real issue we need to talk about right now is gun control." https://t.co/sbEgnpkqWO
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) August 27, 2018
Every other country has mentally ill individuals. South Korea and Japan play way more video games than us. But the only mass shooting at a video game tournament in the history of this planet happened in Jacksonville Landing. At a Madden Tournament for sports. Wonder why.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) August 26, 2018
“How twisted are you? [Senator John] McCain passed away, there was a shooting in Jacksonville Fl, four [sic] people died, and you’re tweeting about your approval rating? You are the most vile person and shouldn’t be President for [sic] this great country,” tweeted another user.
While both tweets have angered Twitter users over Donald Trump’s seeming lack of reaction to the Jacksonville tragedy, the Palmer Report noted that the president was spending his Sunday at one of his golf resorts. The publication, however, cited a report from CNN, which stated that Trump was already briefed by Florida Governor Rick Scott about the situation, meaning he should be aware of what happened in Jacksonville earlier in the day.
As for Donald Trump’s approval rating, the New York Post reported earlier on Sunday that recent polls have shown it to be “remarkably stable” despite the recent legal developments surrounding his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Based on polls from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, Trump has an approval rating of 46 percent for the week of August 18 to 22, which is lower than the 52 percent rating he tweeted about on Sunday night.
