Trump touts ratings for rally, Fox News town hall: ‘These are the real polls’

President Trump on Saturday morning touted the television ratings from his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., last weekend and his town hall with Fox News’s Sean Hannity this week.

Trump asserted in a pair of tweets that the ratings “are the real polls” after a series of recent pubic surveys showed him trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden both nationally and in key swing states.

“Do not believe the Fake News Media. Oklahoma speech had the highest Saturday television ratings in @FoxNews history. @seanhannity dominated T.V. with my interview on Thursday night, more than @CNN & MSDNC COMBINED,” Trump tweeted. “These are the real polls, the Silent Majority, not FAKE POLLS!”

….We will win the Election against Corrupt Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Schumer. We will save the Supreme Court, your 2nd Amendment, permanent damage from the ridiculous Green New Deal, and you from massive Tax Hikes. Also, our Heritage, History and LAW & ORDER!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2020

Trump on Friday night also retweeted a post about the town hall ratings.

Fox reported that Trump’s sit-down with Hannity Thursday night drew 5.1 million viewers, while MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” — which were on at the same time — drew 3.1 million and 1.8 million viewers, respectively, according to Nielsen data.

The president has repeatedly dismissed polls showing him trailing rivals as “fake,” and his latest tweets come after a spate of recent surveys showed Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, with a double-digit lead over the president nationally.

A New York Times-Siena College poll released this week gave Biden a 14-point lead on the president, while a Harvard-Harris survey showed Biden with a 12-point lead. A Fox News poll released earlier this month also showed Trump trailing by 12 points.

The president’s approval rating has also dropped recently following his response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 125,000 people in the U.S. and his handling of nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Friday put Trump’s disapproval rating at 58 percent, a record high.