Trump Just Said He Wants a Poll on the “Dishonest” News Media. Polls Show People Trust Him Less.

The facts speak for themselves.

Activists inflate a Donald Trump baby balloon in Los Angeles on October 18, 2018, ahead of a politically-themed convention.Richard Vogel/AP

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On Sunday morning, President Trump tweeted about the New York Times and the Washington Post, calling them “dishonest” and “deceitful,” while parroting his typical line of attack that he believes them to be the “Enemy of the People.” “A poll should be done on which…is worse,” he wrote.

Indeed, trust in the media is still hovering around its 2016 historic low—perhaps in part because of Trump’s own incessant assaults on the news. Nevertheless, trust in the media among American voters is still higher than trust in Trump.

“We have polled on whether people think the New York Times or Washington Post have more credibility or you, and you lose out 51-38 and 49-38 to them respectively,” the Public Policy Institute tweeted at Trump Sunday morning. Their findings have been backed up by several other polls in recent years. A Quinnipiac University poll from February 2017 showed that 52 percent of Americans said they trust the news media over Donald Trump to tell the truth about important issues, and only 37 percent reported that they trusted Trump more. Another Quinnipiac poll from September 2018 found that Trump’s numbers had dropped even lower: 54 percent of American voters trusted the media more than President Trump, and just 30 percent trusted Trump over the media.

Trump can trash the Times and the Post all he wants, but he’s only exposing himself when he does.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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