There are things you can post on Truth Social and there are things you can post on Truth Social that cause political analysts across the country to spend a Monday morning asking the same question, which is whether the president of the United States confused his approval rating with his disapproval rating, or whether he has simply decided that the number he prefers is the number he will use.
Trump posted Sunday night: “59% Approval Rating. THE ECONOMY IS DOING GREAT. PRICES ARE COMING DOWN RAPIDLY. THE COUNTRY IS UNITED. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” He posted this while Lindsey Graham was dying in South Carolina, Iran was striking five US-allied nations in the Gulf, and the Economist’s presidential approval tracker was showing his disapproval rating at 59 percent. His approval in that same tracker is 36 percent. RealClearPolling has it at 56.5 percent disapproval. The New York Times tracker has him 19 points underwater. No major poll tracked by RealClearPolling, the Times, or the Economist has his approval rating approaching 50 percent, much less 59 percent.
“Did he accidentally mix up the numbers or something?” Tahra Hoops wrote on X, which is the charitable interpretation that assumes arithmetic error over deliberate inversion. “He’s tweeting out his disapproval rating as if it’s approval,” wrote Michael on X. “No, TRUMP is confusing his DISAPPROVAL with his APPROVAL numbers,” wrote a user named CABLE NEWS WATCHER, whose username suggests they have been watching long enough to have seen this before. The average of 70 major polls, per the HuffPost fact-check, has Trump at 40.1 percent approval with approximately 57 percent disapproving.
His second claim, that prices are coming down rapidly, is also complicated by the evidence. Oil and gas prices fell from their May peak when the Strait of Hormuz was closed during the initial Iran operation. They have since risen again following the resumption of hostilities this week. The Iran war restarted Wednesday. Trump told Fox & Friends this morning that he wants to be paid 20 percent on all cargo through the Strait. Gas prices do not reflect this development yet because it happened this weekend, which means the “prices coming down rapidly” claim is based on the period between the two wars rather than the current trajectory.
Trump’s Truth Social posts are not subject to editorial review. The 59 percent approval post remains up. The Economist’s tracker still shows 59 percent disapproval. They are the same number, pointed in opposite directions.
When the president posts his disapproval rating as his approval rating during a weekend in which one of his closest Senate allies died and Iran struck five US-allied countries, which number was he reading?
Sources
HuffPost: Trump’s Sunday-Night Boast Gets Hit With Immediate Reality Check
Raw Story: ‘The answer is no’: Historical data said to show Trump unlikely to recover from major fall
