U.S. President Donald Trump has lashed out at recent media polls suggesting he has one of the worst early approval ratings in history, stating “any negative polls are fake news.”
“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election,” the president said on Twitter early Monday. “Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.”
Though it’s unclear exactly what prompted his tweets, the president appeared to be referencing several polls, including the CNN/ORC International poll, released Friday, which found 52 per cent of Americans are unhappy with Trump’s early actions in office.
According to CNN, the results mark the highest disapproval rating for a new president since polls began tracking approval ratings.
The same poll also found 55 per cent viewed Trump’s controversial travel ban as an attempt to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. While 47 per cent of those polled said they are in favour of the executive order on immigration, designed to temporarily prevent citizens from seven-Muslim majority countries from entering the U.S., 53 per cent opposed the order.
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On Saturday, the U.S. government suspended enforcement of the so-called travel ban after a federal judge in Washington state temporarily blocked the ban, marking an extraordinary setback for the White House. Though the White House has said it expects the courts to reaffirm the order, lawyers for Washington state and Minnesota told a federal appellate court restoring the ban would “unleash chaos again.”
READ MORE: States argue allowing Donald Trump’s travel ban would ‘unleash chaos’
The president also appeared to address criticisms that his chief strategist Steve Bannon has too much influence over the White House, tweeting, “I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data and everyone knows it. Some fake news media, in order to marginalize, lies!”
Saturday Night Live addressed the widespread impression among many Trump administration critics, portraying Bannon as the Grim Reaper, just days after Time Magazine published a story titled, “Is Steve Bannon the second-most powerful man in the world?”
WATCH: Trump’s calls to foreign leaders goes poorly in ‘SNL’ skit
The New York Times also released an unflattering portrait of Trump’s nights at the White House, suggesting he spends much of his time watching cable news and wasn’t fully briefed before signing an executive order elevating Bannon to the National Security Council.
— With files from The Associated Press and Global News reporter Rhaul Kalvapalle
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