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When the truth is inconvenient, make up your own facts. That seems to be President Donald Trump‘s motto. The president posted a tweet Sunday morning referring to a poll that does not exist, as noticed by many journalists on Twitter.
Of course, Trump is a president who is well-known for his lies and falsehoods. TheWashington Postrecently released fact-checking data that revealed he made nearly 6,500 false or misleading claims during his 649 days in office. However, the Postnoted that his rate has increased recently; in the seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections, he has averagedan impressive 30 falsehoodsper day.
Washington Postreporter Aaron Blake tweeted that the source of the fake poll touted by Trump came from Fox columnist citing a Rasmussen poll in a recent column. A Fox News spokesperson also confirmed to Talking Points Memo that Trump was referring to Rasmussen.
https://thisforall.net/AaronBlake/status/1059103259309285376
This may explain why Trump erroneously attributed the poll to Fox, but even so, Rasmussen has been characterized as an outlier, and other polling firms have measured Trump’s African-American support as much lower. YouGov/Economist most recently reported Trump’s approval rating among black Americans at 17 percent. Reuters clocked it at 16.7 percent.
Perhaps Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for theToronto Star summed up Trump’s strategy of untruth best during an appearance onCNN’sReliable SourcesSunday, “These are not simply the usual exaggerations of a crowd size and so on. [Trump] is making stuff up in the last couple weeks in a way that I don’t think we’ve seen even from a serial liar, the president, before.”
