The House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearings produced abundant evidence that Donald Trump improperly abused his power and the office of the presidency. His blatant extortion of the president of Ukraine in order to smear Joe Biden was unarguably affirmed by credible testimony from non-partisan career diplomats and national security professionals. It was a devastating week for Trump that even the senior legal analyst at Fox News recognized, saying that “the evidence of impeachable behavior is overwhelming.”

This consensus among honest pundits and politicians has weighed heavily on Trump. His fear of the consequences of his acts shows with every new public outburst. And his determination to keep his cult followers blissfully unaware of the legal jeopardy that he and his cohorts face is producing ever more bizarre commentaries and tweets.

Trump has embarked on a mission to gaslight his Deplorables into believing that the impeachment hearings were a negative for Democrats. In the few days since last weeks testimony, Trump has unleashed a barrage of tweets falsely proclaiming that that the hearings have hurt Democrats and that polls are swinging strongly in his direction. For example, these are some of Trump’s unabashed falsehoods regarding his poll numbers:

• “The Tide Is Turning Against Democrats On Impeachment.”
• “Poll shows Dems losing interest in Impeachment inquiry all across the board.”
• “The Democrats are getting hit and slammed on Impeachment. It is getting less and less popular by the day.”
• “Support for Impeachment is dropping like a rock, down into the 20’s in some Polls.”
• “Democrats going back to their Districts for Thanksgiving are getting absolutely hammered by their constituents over the phony Impeachment Scam.”
• “The Impeachment Scam is driving Republican Poll Numbers UP, UP, UP! Thank you Shifty.”
• “The first phase of impeachment did not go well for Democrats.”
• “Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment, especially in swing states. 75% to 25%. Thank you!”
• “Polls have now turned very strongly against Impeachment!”
• “The support for Impeachment is not there. I think the Democrats will have to come up with a new game plan.”

Unfortunately for Trump, none of that is true. What’s more, much of it is just made up from thin air. Notice that he does not link to a single poll that supports his claims. That’s because they often do not exist. There is no poll that has support for impeachment “down into the 20’s.” There is also no poll showing “Republican Poll Numbers UP, UP, UP!” And his claim that Democrats returning to their districts for Thanksgiving are “getting absolutely hammered by their constituents,” was posted before most of them even left Washington.

The truth is, not surprisingly, diametrically opposed to Trump’s fantastical warping of reality. A new CNN poll taken after the hearings shows that 50% of voters support Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. Only 43% oppose his impeachment. That is just about the same as polling prior to the hearings. So contrary to Trump’s relentless raving, there has been no decline in support to ditch the President.

The CNN poll is in line with others, as well as polling that breaks the numbers down by political affiliation. What’s more, 53% say that Trump used the presidency improperly. And 56% say Trump’s pressure on Ukraine was about benefiting himself politically, not uprooting corruption.

A week ago Trump posted a tweet that bragged about 50% favorability in a poll by the utterly disreputable Rasmussen Reports. That number quickly dropped to only 44% favoring Trump during the week of the impeachment hearings. So not only did Support for Democrats not go down, it was support for Trump thank tanked. And that’s Trump’s favorite poll that he cites more than any other. For some reason he never cites it when it reports that he’s underwater, which is most of the time.

While it isn’t unusual that a politician would seek to accentuate the positive as often as possible, it’s troubling that Trump is so insistent on constantly – and grossly – misrepresenting his popularity. It’s just more proof that he is a stark raving narcissist, intent on creating his own fairy tale world. And the only thing worse than that is how hungrily his glassy-eyed disciples eat up his lies.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.