Donald Trump’s self-worth has long been defined by numbers. His net worth (which he would often inflate). The ratings for “The Apprentice.” And once he entered politics, polling. …
In June 2020, Trump offered one of his more unusual responses to a bad poll. CNN and its polling partner SSRS found Trump trailing Joe Biden in the presidential election by 14 points, a wider margin than any other poll in the same period. …
But then Trump tweeted out a poll from his preferred pollster, John McLaughlin. In it, McLaughlin disparaged not the poll’s methodology but the pollsters’ integrity. … McLaughlin’s complaints about intent and Trump’s odd suggestion that pollsters were trying to suppress turnout in an election that wouldn’t see votes cast for another three months were just shouting. But, you know. Very Trump.
So it was unexpected when, on Thursday, the Biden White House deployed a similar tactic, though with a much more Biden-y approach. CONTINUED
Philip Bump, Washington Post
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