MaddowBlog-This holiday season, Trump gave himself a gift: A generous, made-up approval rating

[LetMyPeopleVote]

It sure is weird to see an American president touting polling data that only exists in his imagination.

This holiday season, Trump gave himself a gift: A generous, made-up approval rating

It sure is weird to see an American president touting polling data that only exists in his imagination.

Maddowblog

— dharmalee3❌👑 (@dharmalee3.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T18:35:44.362Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/this-holiday-season-trump-gave-himself-a-gift-a-generous-made-up-approval-rating

But Trump isn’t doing any of those things. Instead, he’s apparently decided to reward himself with a new, made-up approval rating that he prefers over reality. The Hill reported:

President Trump claimed Tuesday that his ‘real’ approval rating is at 64 percent, despite polls showing it is below 50 percent.

‘The polls are rigged even more than the writers,’ Trump said in a late-night Truth Social post. ‘The real number is 64%, and why not, our Country is “hotter” than ever before.’

To be sure, there is some variation among the recent surveys. Gallup found only 36% of the public approves of Trump’s job performance, but Quinnipiac University put the number at 40%. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found the president with 39% support, while the latest Marist poll put the number at 38%.

But the grand total of publicly available national polls, conducted at any time in 2025, which showed Trump with a 64% approval rating is zero.

Those surveys had no basis in reality, and it’s certainly weird to see an American president giving himself generous approval ratings based on data that only exists in his imagination. But let’s not lose sight of the trajectory: Based on Trump’s own telling, his imaginary approval rating slipped several points over the course of 2025

[Permanut]

1. I'm waiting for him to announce that his score for a round of golf was 18.

[Brother Buzz]

2. Who's gonna draw the short straw to tell him....

That 64% poll was conducted in Wyoming’s RNC headquarters?