Trump issues scathing statement after eye-opening approval ratings revealed what Americans really think of him

Donald Trump has once again lashed out at new approval ratings that paint an unflattering picture of how Americans feel about his presidency, especially as he marks the first year of his second term in office.

Since returning to the White House, several polls have been released measuring public opinion about Trump, and many of them have not gone in his favor. The most recent numbers appear to have struck a nerve with the president.

A poll conducted by AP-NORC and released this month found that only about four in ten American adults approve of Trump’s performance so far. The breakdown was even worse on specific issues. According to the poll, 62 percent of respondents said they disapprove of how he is handling the economy, while 61 percent said they disapprove of his approach to immigration.

Overall, the poll showed that 59 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of the president as of January 8, 2026. That number may have dropped even further following recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis, where two civilians were fatally shot by federal agents. Those incidents sparked outrage and renewed criticism of the administration’s immigration policies.

Another survey, conducted jointly by The New York Times and Siena University and published on January 22, delivered similarly troubling results for Trump. In that poll, 49 percent of respondents said they believe the country is worse off than it was a year ago, while only 32 percent said things are better now.

Unsurprisingly, Trump did not take the results quietly. In a furious statement released shortly after the polls became public, he dismissed the findings outright and accused the media and pollsters of deliberate wrongdoing.

He claimed that “fake and fraudulent polling” should almost be treated as a criminal act. Trump argued that media outlets knowingly used incorrect polls during the 2020 election to influence voters, insisting that he actually won by a massive margin, including the popular vote, every swing state, and an overwhelming majority of counties. These claims directly contradict official election results and widely accepted data.

Trump’s statement went on at length, attacking major news organizations by name. He accused outlets like the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC of pushing dishonest polling that, in his words, had “nothing even close” to the final election outcomes. He even criticized polls conducted by Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, saying they have been unreliable over the years.

While blasting the media, Trump claimed that there are “great pollsters” who supposedly got past elections right, but said the press refuses to highlight their work. He framed this as part of a larger failure of American journalism, which he described as broken and dishonest.

Trump ended his remarks by vowing to fight what he called a “polling scam,” promising to do everything he can to stop what he sees as misleading surveys from shaping public opinion going forward.

The White House has not provided any additional clarification or evidence to support Trump’s claims, but the latest episode continues a familiar pattern: when polls look bad, Trump attacks the polls themselves rather than addressing the concerns they reflect.