The deep-seated fear driving Trump's invented and exaggerated popularity rankings

[Zorro]

It’s just so obvious.

In a pair of tweets Tuesday morning, offered alongside complaints about a TV show being mean to him and the “fake news” more generally, President Trump tried to assure the world that he is both popular and an irresistible lure for the American public.

First, Trump boasted about the ratings for his daily White House briefings … briefings ostensibly focused on how his administration was combating a viral pandemic that has killed more than 42,000 Americans.

Link to tweet

Then, he touted his record approval ratings from Republicans.

Link to tweet

Trump being Trump, he couldn’t simply hype that approval rating, as he did in a tweet 11 days ago. He had to make the point explicit: If I’m that popular, then clearly what I’m doing about the coronavirus is the right thing to do. Never mind that the approval rating was only among Republicans; the point Trump was trying to make was that the numbers don’t lie, and he’s delivering for his base.

Except the numbers do lie. Trump’s approval among Republicans isn’t 96 percent, any more than it was consistently 95 percent from October through March and no more than it was 94 percent from July through September.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/21/deep-seated-fear-driving-trumps-invented-exaggerated-popularity-rankings/