April 15, 2018

Donald Trump Really Wants You to Know How Well He’s Doing in One Specific Poll

Congratulations?

Susan Walsh/AP

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Donald Trump isn’t a very popular president. According to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, his approval rating is currently around 41 percent. That’s about 7 points below where Barack Obama was at this stage of his presidency.

But Trump isn’t interested in polling averages. On Sunday morning—on the tail end of a truly unhinged Twitter tirade against James Comey—the president trumpeted his standing in one specific poll.

Obviously, there’s nothing particularly unusual about a politician cherry-picking data to make himself look better. But what is striking is just how often Trump has celebrated his standing in the Rasmussen survey—a poll that has tended to give him higher approval ratings than most other public polls have. Here’s Trump earlier this month:

And here he is last month:

And in February:

And last June:

Congratulations, Mr. President!

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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