President Donald Trump on Monday said opinion pollsters should be investigated after a series of surveys showed his approval ratings sliding past historic lows as he marks 100 days in office.
Mr Trump took to social media to call pollsters “negative criminals” and said opinion surveys routinely get things wrong, including before his election in November.
Pollsters and the media outlets that report on the data “are truly the enemy of the people” he wrote on Truth Social, accusing critics of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome”.
Polls are showing that most Americans are souring on his presidency, particularly over his handling of the economy. While Americans give Mr Trump credit for cutting the number of illegal migrant crossings into the US, the effect his tariffs policy is having on people's savings is dragging his approval rate down.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that only 39 per cent of respondents approve of Mr Trump's handling of his job, compared to 55 per cent who disapprove, 44 per cent of whom disapprove strongly. Those numbers are down from 45 per cent positive compared to 53 per cent negative in February.
The Post said Mr Trump now has lower approval ratings than any past president after 100 days in office in their first or second terms. He has fallen short of the low scores seen during his first term in office.
A New York Times/Siena Poll found that 42 per cent of registered voters approved of Mr Trump's job performance, while 54 per cent disapproved.
An NBC poll found 45 per cent approved of Mr Trump compared with 55 per cent who disapproved. Even conservative Fox News had Mr Trump's approval at 44 per cent, with 55 per cent disapproving. A CBS poll, meanwhile, found most Americans think the economy is getting worse.
Karl Rove, Fox News contributor and former senior adviser to Republican president George W Bush, said Mr Trump's difficulties stem from his handling of the economy. He was elected to a second term on a promise of unleashing a boom in the US economy and reducing prices, but his tariffs policy has wiped billions off Americans' pension accounts while raising the spectre of increased inflation.
“When it gets to the economy, he is in very bad shape,” Mr Rove said on Fox News. “There’s some very deep-seated scepticism among ordinary Americans about the effect of the economy, the President’s economic policies, both in the short run and the long run.”
Mr Trump said pollsters and media outlets should “be investigated for election fraud”.
“And add in the Fox News Pollster while you’re at it. They are negative criminals who apologise to their subscribers and readers after I win elections big, much bigger than their polls showed I would win, lose a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse,” he wrote in an early morning message on Truth Social.
