President Trump deems any negative polls about him 'fake news'

Protesters stand up against the immigration executive order by President Trump.
(Image credit: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump summarily dismissed "any negative polls" about his presidency as being "fake news" in a series of tweets Monday morning:

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.

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"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."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.