In 2012 there was a mini-movement by Republicans to “unskew” all of the polls that were showing Mitt Romney losing to President Obama. They were convinced that the vast left-wing conspiracy in the media was distorting survey results that would otherwise have shown Romney in the lead. It was an act of self-deception that resulted in their being shocked when Obama actually won reelection just like the polls predicted.
The same thing is happening in 2016 as Donald Trump and his PR department (aka Fox News) cherry-pick polls that elevate his standings and ignores, or baselessly slams, those that show him where he actually stands – badly trailing Hillary Clinton. So reading polls is just one more thing at which Donald Trump sucks. As an example of this cognitive lapse take a look at what Trump said about a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that has him behind Clinton by twelve points: “The @ABC poll sample is heavy on Democrats. Very dishonest – why would they do that? Other polls good!”
The @ABC poll sample is heavy on Democrats. Very dishonest – why would they do that? Other polls good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2016
That’s funny. Trump had no problem last month with the very same poll when it showed him leading by two points. Back then he retweeted a link heralding the results without any mention of the pollster’s dishonesty.
BREAKING POLL: Trump Gains 11 Points on Clinton Since March=> Now Leads Crooked Hillary 46-44 https://t.co/y3BGy15Erb via @gatewaypundit
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) May 22, 2016
The past month has seen Trump suffer through an avalanche of horrible failures, including: he repeatedly insulted the Latino judge in his Trump University fraud lawsuit with racist comments; after the Orlando massacre he praised himself and implied that Obama sympathized with the terrorists; he had a dismal financial report showing him with only $1.3 million; he fired his skeevy campaign manager; his GOP colleagues have been abandoning him in droves. And in the meantime Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination and has been enjoying success at unifying the party. No rational person would be surprised by Trump’s declining poll numbers.
But no one ever accused Trump of being rational. In the tweet above he also put forth the fiction that “Other polls good!” Which other polls he was referring to is a mystery. Here is every poll followed by RealClear Politics for the month of June. Notice that Clinton is ahead in every one of them. On second thought, that is good.
This is fairly typical for Trump. When he has a momentary spike by in popularity he declares victory and lavishes himself with praise. He is utterly blind to anything less than unqualified acclaim. And when neither is handy he latches onto laughably phony sources that he can count on for partisan drivel. Take for instance his promotion of a ludicrous poll that said he “Leads Big With Latinos.” And just as absurd was this one reporting that “Minorities Line Up Behind” him. And then there was the time that a Wall Street Street Journal/NBC poll showed him behind Ted Cruz in the primary. Trump whined that “I never do well” with that poll. Except that he was ahead in five of the six previous polls by the Journal. Only someone with a deeply corrupted view of reality could believe this nonsense.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
Unfortunately, the reality-challenged demographic to whom Trump appeals actually exists. They are small, but annoyingly loud. And they will believe whatever their Orange Lord tells them. As he said himself, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support. He’s frighteningly right about that. It’s the Kool-Aide chugging wing of the Republican Party and they must not be allowed to prevail in November.
Donald Trump will never be President of the United States – guaranteed.
About as guarunteed as Britain never leaving the EU….before it did.
Stupidity and irrationality should never be underestimated.
They never said he would win the nomination either. God help us…