Trump's attacks backfire: Americans trust media more than him
Donald Trump’s chronic whining about the press might make his loyalists feel good and stoke anti-media fervor, but it isn’t converting voters in terms of who they think is more trustworthy, reporters or Trump. Journalists win hands down. “We continue to find that he is losing all of his battles with the media,” writes Tom […]
Journalists win hands down.
“We continue to find that he is losing all of his battles with the media,” writes Tom Jensen and Public Policy Polling, which released a new poll on Thursday.
Asked who they had a higher opinion of — a specific news organization or Trump — Americans always picked the news teams, and by comfortable margins: CBS (+15 points), NBC (+13 points), ABC (13 points), Washington Post (+13 points), CNN (+13 points), and the New York Times (+12 points).
In recent years, conservatives have even tried to drag ESPN, the all-sports channel, into the political fray, concocting far-flung and baseless claims that the channel has become a tool of the DNC.
Not surprisingly, more Americans trust ESPN than they do Trump.
Just this week, Trump tweeted out the comical conspiracy theory that Facebook had somehow colluded with the Washington Post, which then colluded with its prime competitor, The New York Times, to target Trump for negative coverage last year.
The mini-hissy fit came after news broke that Facebook, far from targeting Trump last year, discovered that thousands of political ads published on its platform over the past two years were linked to fake accounts based in Russia. And they were ads designed to help Trump win the White House.
But of course, what Trump offers up isn’t even remotely a serious critique of the press. Instead, it’s just a running string of whiny attacks where he sounds more like a cantankerous, septuagenarian Fox News viewer than he does the president of the United States.
For instance, following two days of bipartisan furor over Trump’s complete mishandling of the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Trump lashed out at the press, insisting they were to blame for his botched response:
Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017
Trump kicked off his August vacation last month with a full side of attacks on the press and maintained a frantic pace all summer.
Outside his bubble, nobody’s listening.
Recommended
Biden calls for expanded child tax credit, taxes on wealthy in $7.2 trillion budget plan
President Joe Biden released his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year Monday, calling on Congress to stick to the spending agreement brokered last year and to revamp tax laws so that the “wealthy pay their fair share.”
By Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom - March 11, 2024Biden rallies Democrats in Las Vegas: ‘Imagine the nightmare’ if Trump reelected
With a primary win all but inevitable, President Joe Biden used his Sunday appearance in Las Vegas’s Historic Westside to rally his most vocal supporters in a battleground state that delivered for him four years ago.
By April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current - February 05, 2024UAW delivers rousing presidential endorsement for Biden over ‘scab’ Trump
The United Auto Workers of America endorsed the re-election of President Joe Biden Wednesday, just months after he became the first sitting U.S. president to walk a picket line with striking autoworkers in Michigan.
By Ashley Murray, States Newsroom - January 24, 2024