Trump slams ‘phony’ poll showing him trailing several 2020 Democrats

President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed a new survey showing him trailing several of his top 2020 Democratic rivals in head-to-head match-ups, and blamed “never ending Fake News” for his dismal performance in public polling ahead of next year’s election.

The broadsides appeared on the president’s Twitter feed roughly a half-hour before he and first lady Melania Trump walked out of the White House to participate in a moment of silence on the South Lawn commemorating the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He is scheduled to attend an observance ceremony at the Pentagon later in the morning.

“In a hypothetical poll, done by one of the worst pollsters of them all, the Amazon Washington Post/ABC, which predicted I would lose to Crooked Hillary by 15 points (how did that work out?), Sleepy Joe, Pocahontas and virtually all others would beat me in the General Election,” Trump wrote online.

An ABC News/Washington Post survey released Wednesday showed Trump lagging behind former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in potential general election contests.

Biden enjoyed the most significant advantage over Trump among all adults polled, 16 percentage points ahead of the president, while Sanders led by 12 points, Warren by 11 points, Harris by 10 points and Buttigieg by 6 points.

Among registered voters, Biden is out in front of Trump by 15 points, Sanders by 9 points, Warren and Harris by 7 points, and Buttigieg by 4 points — though Buttigieg’s advantage is within the survey’s range of sampling error.

“This is a phony suppression poll, meant to build up their Democrat partners. I haven’t even started campaigning yet, and am constantly fighting Fake News like Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump tweeted.

 

Although the president claimed he has not begun campaigning for reelection, he has held regular campaign-style rallies across the country dating back to the transition period before his inauguration, and his 2020 campaign manager has been in place since February 2018.

“Look at North Carolina last night. Dan Bishop, down big in the Polls, WINS. Easier than 2016!” Trump continued, pointing toward the Republican state senator’s victory Tuesday in the closely watched special election for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

“If it weren’t for the never ending Fake News about me, and with all that I have done (more than any other President in the first 2 1/2 years!), I would be leading the ‘Partners’ of the LameStream Media by 20 points,” he concluded. “Sorry, but true!”

Trump most recently railed against polls by news outlets on Tuesday, after an ABC News/Washington Post survey reported his job approval rating dropping to 38 percent — a decrease of 6 percentage points from a peak of 44 percent approval in July.

“One of the greatest and most powerful weapons used by the Fake and Corrupt News Media is the phony Polling Information they put out,” he charged in a tweet. “Many of these polls are fixed, or worked in such a way that a certain candidate will look good or bad. Internal polling looks great, the best ever!”

The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Sept. 2-5, surveying a random national sample of 1,003 adults. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and the margin of error among the sample of 877 registered voters is plus or minus 4 percentage points.