Donald Trump used his gargantuan Twitter reach on Sunday to renew his attacks on the media, citing a poll from last Wednesday that found nearly half of Americans think reporters fabricate stories about him.
‘It is finally sinking through. 46% OF PEOPLE BELIEVE MAJOR NATIONAL NEWS ORGS FABRICATE STORIES ABOUT ME. FAKE NEWS, even worse! Lost cred,’ the president tweeted.
The president first made note of the Politico/Morning Consult poll on Wednesday when it was released, tweeting: ‘It is actually much worse than this!’
Pollsters found 46 percent of voters agree with Trump’s constant ‘fake news’ claim, which he deploys when pointing at negative news coverage. Just 37 percent say journalists don’t produce false stories about the president.
President Trump has been complaining about ‘fake news’ since his campaign days and a survey this week lent his some support – showing that nearly half of voters think the media make up at least some reporting about him and his administration
![The president tweeted on Sunday morning that the news media has 'lost cred[ibility]' and his claims about 'FAKE NEWS' are 'finally sinking through'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/22/14/45928B0D00000578-0-image-a-3_1508680743181.jpg)
The president tweeted on Sunday morning that the news media has ‘lost cred[ibility]’ and his claims about ‘FAKE NEWS’ are ‘finally sinking through’
There’s a big split between how members of the two parties view the media, but even among Democrats one in five think Trump is getting a raw deal on purpose.
President Trump departed the White House on Sunday morning for a round of golf at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, VA
Meanwhile, 76 percent of Republicans – and 80 per cent of Trump voters overall – agree that news organizations are making their stories up about Trump and his administration. the Republican president.
A large majority of Hillary Clinton voters do not, with 16 percent saying they believed the fabrication claim and another 71 percent disagreeing.
More men said they believed Trump’s claim, 50 percent, than women, 43 percent.
Education made some difference, with 48 percent of those holding postgraduate degrees sticking up for the media.
That’s compared to 43 percent with a bachelor’s degree and 33 percent with no college degree who also said journalists don’t fabricate presidential politics stories.
Never one to let a firestorm die quickly, the president claimed last week that ‘it is actually much worse than this’
The president has constantly berated the media calling unflattering news reports ‘fake news’; Last week he escalated the battle suggesting that NBC should lose its broadcast license, a move that a slim majority of Americans would disapprove of
Trump has used the shoot-the-messenger tactic nearly every day in office – and for months on the campaign trail.
Last Tuesday he name-dropped a number of news outlets in a tweet complaining about unfair coverage.
‘So much Fake News being put in dying magazines and newspapers. Only place worse may be @NBCNews, @CBSNews, @ABC and and @CNN,’ Trump wrote. ‘Fiction writers!’
Republicans and Trump voters were far more likely to believe that the media fabricated stories about President Trump than their Democratic and Clinton-voting peers
On Wednesday morning, Trump’s Make America Great Again Committee – the joint fundraising committee between the president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee – sent out a note to supporters belaboring the point.
‘I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the Mainstream Media is out to bring down my Administration,’ the note said. ‘It’s a 24/7 barrage of hit jobs, fake stories, and absolute hatred for everything we stand for as a movement.’
Earlier this month Trump made an unusually potent threat, suggesting that NBC’s broadcast licenses could be yanked, after the network produced a particularly unflattering story about the president.
NBC News reported that Trump said at a Pentagon meeting that he wanted to nuclear weapons cache increased by ‘ten-fold.’
That view, reportedly, had prompted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to refer to the president as a ‘moron.’
‘With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!’ Trump tweeted.
Later reporting from other news outlets provided evidence on Trump’s side, making it clear that the president was interested only in modernizing America’s nuclear arsenal.
When pollsters asked registered voters if revoking media licenses is something the federal government should be able to do, a slim majority answered no.
Fifty-one percent of respondents said no, while another 28 percent said Washington should have that power.