President Donald Trump has dismissed national polls showing his approval rating slipping ahead of November’s midterm elections, labeling the figures as “fake” and insisting his true public support is closer to 60 percent.
In an interview published Saturday, Trump was asked about a RealClearPolitics polling average indicating that 38.8 percent of Americans approved of his job performance while 60.4 percent disapproved. Rejecting those numbers outright, Trump maintained that his backing remains far stronger across the country.
“It’s fake,” Trump said when questioned by the interviewer about the figures. When pressed on where he believed his actual approval rating stood, Trump replied, “I don’t believe I could be beaten by anybody. I think that if I needed it, which I don’t, I think 60.”
To substantiate his claims of high popularity, the president pointed directly to his robust backing among Republican voters and his core MAGA base. National surveys, however, have consistently presented a starkly different outlook on his overall political standing heading into the midterms.
A /Ipsos poll conducted between October 16 and 19 reported that 34 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s performance, compared to 65 percent who disapproved. An earlier Pew Research Center survey conducted from September 28 through October 4 showed an even lower approval figure, with just 30 percent approving and 68 percent disapproving. Additionally, a New York Times/Siena College poll placed his job approval at 34 percent, noting it was the lowest recorded for a president approaching a midterm election since Harry Truman’s 33 percent approval rating in 1946.
Trump’s skepticism toward published polling data coincides with a recent controversy involving and Wedgewood Research, a polling firm that admitted to producing fabricated polling numbers as part of a social experiment. The newspaper clarified that it did not incorporate the disputed data into its calculations of the president’s job approval.
Despite widespread unfavorable national numbers, Trump highlighted specific analyses reflecting his dominance within his own party. He pointed to data compiled by CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, which showed that Trump secured 99 percent of the MAGA Republican vote in the 2024 election and maintained a 98 percent approval rating among that group in September.
“I think I’d be in the 60s now. Now, in the Republican Party, I’m way up. Show him the 99 percent. Have you seen it?” Trump remarked during the interview.
At the same time, Enten’s analysis also highlighted significant vulnerabilities for the president, noting that Trump’s net approval rating on the issue of inflation dropped from a positive eight points in 2024 to negative 45 points ahead of the midterms. Earlier in the week, Enten described the president’s broader polling trajectory as a “five-alarm Trumpster fire” following a /Ipsos survey that placed Trump’s approval rating at 31 percent, marking the lowest point recorded across both of his presidential terms.
Even with those critical evaluations, Trump offered praise for the cable network and its data analyst regarding the specific metrics highlighting his support among registered Republicans. “They did do some nice polls on me, I must say,” Trump said. “If CNN keeps doing those polls, I’ll like them more and more.”
