President Donald Trump summarily dismissed "any negative polls" about his presidency as being "fake news" in a series of tweets Monday morning:
Several recent polls have found Americans divided on Trump's executive order, which restricts citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. even if they are legal residents, and suspends the U.S. refugee program. Fifty-three percent of people in a CNN/ORC poll from last week opposed the ban, with an additional six in 10 opposing Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.
A CBS News poll from early February reached nearly the same conclusion, with 51 percent of Americans disapproving of Trump's immigration restrictions. Overall, polls find President Trump to be historically unpopular.
"I think, in [Trump's] mind, the success of this is going to be the poll numbers," Trump's longtime friend and chief executive of Newsmax Media, Chris Ruddy, told The New York Times. "If they continue to be weak or go lower, then somebody's going to have to bear some responsibility for that."
But Trump has insisted he doesn't care about the popularity of his executive order. "I'm not doing it for popularity. I'm doing it because our country is like a sieve for people coming in," Trump told Fox News. He added that his order was "very popular."