Trump denies polling nosedive In the face of a spiraling campaign, the GOP nominee rejects the numbers as inaccurate.

Donald Trump on Sunday insisted that he remains competitive in the polls, particularly with women, even as a host of recent surveys show the Republican nominee’s numbers plummeting.

Trump kicked off a rally in Naples, Fla., by bashing polls as “inaccurate,” especially the myriad results that show him struggling with women.


“I’ll tell you what, we’re doing well in the polls, but you know, I really think those polls are very inaccurate,” Trump said, flanked by women waving pink “Women for Trump” signs. “When it comes to women, I think we’re doing better with women than with men. So we’re setting records with men. But I want to set records with women. I hate to tell the men this, but if I could swap, I’d swap you out so fast, you have no idea how fast.”

But Trump’s appearance followed another round of bad polling for him. A survey from ABC News released earlier in the day found his opponent, Hillary Clinton, with a lead of 12 percentage points, ahead of Trump 50 percent to 38 percent nationally—and beating him with women, 55 percent to 35 percent, as he continues to grapple with nearly a dozen allegations of sexual assault, which he denies.

A CBS poll of Florida also out Sunday found Clinton with a lead of three percentage points over Trump in the state that could decide the election at a time when Trump’s path to victory has narrowed considerably, barely two weeks before Election Day. His own campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, acknowledged on "Meet the Press" on Sunday that Trump was trailing Clinton, though she stressed in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" that "the election doesn't feel over."

Trump has previously suggested, without evidence, that election dynamics are “rigged” against him, refusing in the last presidential debate to commit to accepting election results should he lose. That posture horrified Republicans and Democrats alike who see it, when carried to conclusion, as a possible threat to the American tradition of a peaceful transition of power. But Trump did not back down on Sunday.

“The third debate, they didn’t like the one answer,” he said. "The people here, I think you understand it. We’re in a rigged system, we’re in a broken and corrupt system and Bernie Sanders was in a rigged system…you notice how quiet he’s been the last three or four days? Because he’s been reading and watching WikiLeaks.”

From there, Trump went on to tear into Clinton and what appear to be Clinton campaign emails, stolen from John Podesta and released by WikiLeaks. Trump, who has at times made overtures to supporters of Sanders, Clinton’s primary rival, referenced a recent dump that captured Clinton operatives discussing opposition research about Sanders during the primary.

“This guy Podesta’s a nasty guy,” Trump said, referencing Clinton’s campaign chairman, whose email account was hacked. At the last debate, he also called Clinton a "nasty woman" -- launching a meme that has been championed by the Democrat's female supporters.

Trump, whose flagship private club, Mar-a-Lago, is located in Palm Beach, Fla., also served up plenty of localized pitches as well at his Sunday event, the beginning of a multi-day, multi-city Florida swing this week. He promised to protect the Everglades and pursue policy that benefits Florida’s Space Coast and military installations in the state. He also referenced, several times, the importance of electing a Republican House and Senate (though he did not dwell on the Florida Senate race, where his old primary foe, Marco Rubio, has tepidly endorsed him).

“They love us in the Panhandle,” he said, name-checking a conservative part of the state. “We might get 100 percent of the vote in the Panhandle because they know what’s happening.”

But much of his speech was focused on his opponent—who, for her part, made a point this weekend to largely ignore Trump and instead talk about down-ballot races.

“She looks weak, she looks ineffective, and you watch her, watch at the end of the debate…two of them, where she was like, exhausted,” he said, taking his typical swipe at Clinton’s stamina, aiming to cast her as frail. “But she’s trigger happy. She wants to start shooting wars in Syria. What the hell are we doing with Syria?”

He critized the country’s current administration as a “group of real losers,” and said the United States has “the stupidest leadership, whether it’s our trade, our military.” As for ISIS leaders, “we do know they’re smart people, right?” he asked, while arguing that America is too aggressively telegraphing future military moves in the battle for Mosul, Iraq.

"Folks, we're fighting for Mosul," he said. "The reason we went in, in my opinion, is Obama wanted to show what a tough guy he is before the election."

Trump, as he often does, indicated that his administration would project a tougher image abroad, and said he would promote “peace through strength.” His crowd appeared liveliest, however, during his attacks on Clinton, often breaking into chants of “lock her up!”

“Are we glad that I started, are we happy?” said Trump, who began his rally several minutes early. “Well I’ll let you know on the evening of Nov. 8 whether I’m glad.”