President Donald Trump — perhaps feeling some heat in the lead-up to the midterm elections, in which his party is expecting heavy losses — told a pretty desperate lie Sunday.

New Fox Poll shows a “40% Approval Rating by African Americans for President Trump, a record for Republicans.” Thank you, a great honor! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2018

One problem: There’s no such poll.

A Fox News spokesperson told TPM the president may have been referring to a Rasmussen poll that showed approval among black voters was high. The White House didn’t return TPM’s request for comment.

Trump Approval Today Back at 50% Black Voter Approval at Record High.https://t.co/mazBCW77nY pic.twitter.com/gQiNHhJmhX — Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) October 29, 2018

But even Rasmussen’s numbers are iffy. Michael Tester, associate professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine, wrote in the Washington Post that “polling firms that have interviewed far more African Americans, and that are much more transparent than Rasmussen, all show that Trump’s black approval rating is much lower than 36 percent.”


More reliable polls, including Gallup, Ipsos/Reuters, and YouGov/Economist show his approval rating in that demographic is likely closer to 10 to 15 percent. Quinnipiac puts it at just nine percent.

This isn’t a president who lets facts stand in the way of a good tweet — especially before a midterm election that should have his party feeling nervous.