President Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office, April 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Lou Dobbs on Wednesday night could not contain his excitement when he announced the new Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service poll that showed what Trump’s superfan and Fox Business host stated as “soaring” approval ratings for the President.
“The president’s victories are showing up in the polls, according to a Georgetown University poll. The president’s overall approval is now 55 percent — let’s hear that, 55 percent,” Dobbs, who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken supporters, told his audience.
Trump often retweets the praise he receives from Dobbs and other Fox News hosts, and he made sure to amplify the graphics used in Wednesday’s segment accompanying a screen shot with the message “Great News! #MAGA.”
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The issue that was identified is that although the poll did show that 58 percent of those surveyed approved of President Trump’s handling of the economy, it also revealed that an overall approval rating for Trump’s performance as a president was at 43 percent instead of the 55 percent stated, it also had a 52 percent disapproval rating. While on another question, 55 percent had an “unfavorable” impression of the President, compared with 41 percent who said “favorable”.
Practically all the other specific issues polled, relating to Trump’s job approval returned negative, with the one exception of how Trump was handling “jobs”. Other issues were taxes, immigration and foreign affairs.
An on-air correction was issued on Thursday by Fox Business Network, stating that the initial report was not entirely accurate.
“It’s been a quiet start to the day for President Trump, though he did send out a tweet this morning from the Lou Dobbs show last night on Fox Business,” reporter Blake Burman said on behalf of the network. “That tweet featured a poll that was not entirely accurate, which Fox Business would like to correct.”
The Daily Beast reported that Lou Dobbs would be issuing a correction on his program.
Trump still had not removed his tweet that boasted about the incorrect reporting by Fox on his approval rating, even after more than 10 hours after the initial posting.
The website FiveThirtyEight gave President Trump an overall approval rating of just 41.9 percent and an overall disapproval rating of 52.8 percent, as according to an aggregation of polling data.
