Donald Trump Reportedly Ordered Aides To Deny Internal Polling Showing Him Losing To Biden
Donald Trump has frequently dismissed polls that show him in an unfavorable light, but the president is taking things to a new level after reportedly ordering aides to deny polling conducted by his own campaign.
According to The New York Times, the Trump campaign compiled a poll in 17 states, and the data shows that Trump is polling behind Democratic front-runner Joe Biden in several key battleground states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
When confronted with the news, Trump told his aides to deny the numbers and say that he was doing better than he was.
According to The Times, Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s campaign pollster, brought the polling to the president. When the numbers leaked, Trump told aides to deny that Biden was leading and to say that other data showed him “doing well.”
Trump himself has promoted polls which show him in a favorable light, including a poll yesterday that showed him with a 50 percent approval rating from pollster Rasmussen. Rasmussen is a favorite of Trump’s because the pollster tends to skew right. However, the pollster was reportedly also the least accurate of any of the generic congressional ballot polls in the 2018 midterm elections.
However, other polls show Trump trailing Biden in states like Michigan and have reported lower approval ratings overall.
Despite the Phony Witch Hunt, we will continue to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Thank you!! pic.twitter.com/MXuiolM745
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2019
Despite his lagging numbers, Trump reportedly believes that his instinct is what led him to win in 2016 and that’s what needs to rely on to win in 2020. According to Jason Miller, who served as a communications aide on Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, the president doesn’t plan on changing the way he does things.
“His counterintuitive gut instinct that drove much of the 2016 race was spot on through the primary and the general elections,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect that to change going into 2020. He’s always going to be the one who drives the message and makes the important political decisions.”
The Times says that Biden has gotten under Trump’s skin and is often the focus of conversations behind closed doors. In public, the president continues to attack Biden as “feeble,” “sleepy,” and calls him part of the Washington insider establishment.
“He views Biden as a failed vice president who’s going to be savaged by the left in the primary to the point of unelectability,” said Sam Nunberg. “He also doesn’t believe he has energy.”
Trump even went so far as to side with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un against Biden, repeating that Kim Jong Un had called Biden a “low IQ individual, & worse.”
