Donald Trump Jr. took to Instagram on Thursday to tout his father’s approval rating.

“Amazing,” Don Jr. wrote. “I guess there is a magic wand to make things happen and @realdonaldtrump seems to have it. #maga #amreicafirst [sic]”

Don Jr. included a cable news screencap showing President Trump’s approval rating at 50 percent.

CREDIT: SCREENCAP

There was just one problem — the screengrab Don Jr. posted was clearly and sloppily photoshopped. “50%” was just pasted over “40%” to make President Trump’s approval rating 10 points higher than it really is.

Junior just posted a photoshopped photo of his dad's approval ratings & artificially inflated Trump's rating so that it's higher than Obama's 😂 pic.twitter.com/eERSNsQJop — William LeGate (@williamlegate) August 8, 2018

Despite many commenters pointing out to Don Jr. that he was spreading fake news, as this is published on Friday morning, the post remains live more than 12 hours after it was initially posted. (UPDATE: Sometime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday, the post was deleted.)


The Trump family has a habit of pushing fake news about polling to make President Trump look better. In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly bragged that his approval rating among Republicans is stronger than Abe Lincoln’s, despite the fact that polling didn’t even exist in the 19th century.

Trump brags that his polling is better than Abe Lincoln’s. There’s just one problem — public opinion polling didn’t even exist in the 19th century. pic.twitter.com/1K7EyxeGiM — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2018

During speeches, Trump has advised his followers to disregard “suppression polls” that reflect unfavorably on him, and baselessly instructed them that “any time Trump gets a poll, add 12 to it.”

Trump on "his base" — "And by the way, our people they said it was 35 percent. Then they said it was 40. Then 42. The polls are driving them now over 50 percent. Then they said, some great people, they said any time Trump gets a poll, add 12 to it." pic.twitter.com/G7Kw6HSozV — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2018

While Don Jr’s fake screengrab is a relatively minor fib, other dubious claims he’s made have landed him in serious legal jeopardy.


As ThinkProgress detailed late last month, news that Trump’s longtime lawyer is prepared to testify that Don Jr. informed his father ahead of time about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and Kremlin-connected Russians is very bad news for Don Jr., who flat-out denied ever looping in his dad about the meeting during his testimony to Congress.

It is against the law to lie to Congress, even if you’re not under oath.