President Donald Trump took to social media Friday to slam Fox News for its coverage of recent poll results. In particular, he targeted a liberal commentator on the conservative-leaning network’s program “The Five”.
“Why does Fox News allow failed TV personality Jessica Tarlov to ‘soil’ The Five? Her voice, her manner, and above all else, what she says, are a disgrace to television broadcasting,” said the president on Truth Social. “I’ve had the best poll numbers that I’ve ever had, and she is constantly saying the exact opposite.”
However, other outlets have also reported slipping poll numbers for Trump in the wake of trade wars, economic uncertainty and, more recently, nationwide protests and concerns about war between Israel and Iran. As of Saturday, The Economist’s poll tracker indicated that the president’s approval rating had dropped 3.3 points over the previous week to a net of -12%, with 41% who approve, 53% who disapprove and 5% who are not sure.
Newsweek noted that The Economist showed his approval rating “underwater in 15 states he won in the 2024 election. He beat Democratic candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris in both the popular vote and electoral college last year.
This week, Audacy also reported on poll results from NBC News that showed a significant majority of Americans (81%) believe that President Donald Trump’s administration should not ignore federal court orders.
AZ Central noted that Trump’s approval ratings were falling too, citing several different polls, including The Economist. These also included the most recent Gallup poll, which had Trump’s job approval rating at 43% in May; a Rasmussen Reports poll from June 20 that showed 52% approval and 47% disapproval of Trump; a Morning Consult tracker poll taken mid-June that showed a 46% approval rating and a 52% disapproval rating; a Reuters/Ipsos poll with a 42% favorable approval rating of his performance in office as of June 16 and an InsiderAdvantage poll taken between June 15-16 showed Trump with 54.4% approval over a 44.1% disapproval of his job performance.
Trump cited the positive Rasmussen and InsiderAdvantage results in his Truth Social post.
“Sadly, the audience has to listen to her spew off that I am doing poorly in the polls, while I am beating the democrats by 15%+ points and, more importantly, I just won an election against two candidates, Sleepy Joe and Kamala, in a Landslide by winning all 7 Swing States, and the Popular Vote by millions, with records broken everywhere!” he said.
Trump went on to say that “nobody can stand Tarlov!” and said that his MAGA followers are complaining about her. At the same time, ADWEEK said “The Five” was “back on top in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo during a busy news Friday,” per a June 17 report. It said that the show finished that evening with 4 million total viewers.
Typically, Trump is on good terms with the right-leaning news network. In fact, Audacy reported that he was considering pulling in FOX Business host Maria Bartiromo to be his running mate, though he ultimately picked current Vice president JD Vance.