Trump is responding to bad poll numbers the only way he knows how

Jan. 26, 2026, 6:00 AM EST
By Kaivan Shroff


(MSNow) For the past decade, President Donald Trump has built a norm-defying political career upon persuasion and narrative control. When scandals loomed, he flooded the zone. When his approval ratings dipped, he changed the subject. When facts were inconvenient, he overwhelmed them with “alternative facts” (or, as the rest of us call them, lies). For years, he seemed to prove that controlling the story could matter more than reality itself.

Now, just over a year into his second term, that persuasion strategy is breaking down, and Trump is reaching for something else: coercion.

There is a standard practice in politics: Cite the polls you like and challenge the methodology of the ones you don’t. In one of his signature 2 a.m. social media rants, Trump proposed a different maxim: If you don’t like the poll, sue.

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On its face, this looks like familiar behavior. Trump has spent years attacking unfavorable coverage and threatening litigation against outlets that report stories he doesn’t like. But the context has changed for the bruised lame duck president, and that matters. He is not a candidate trying to steady his numbers ahead of an election. He is a second-term president with declining public support, a fractured coalition and no future campaigns left to organize incentives around. The old tools — spectacle, narrative dominance, relentless counterprogramming — are no longer producing the same results.

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The lawsuit is meant to change the incentives of the institutions that measure and report public opinion. It signals to pollsters, editors and newsrooms that publishing unwelcome information may come with legal and financial consequences. Trump has tested this approach before, suing newspapers, warning networks about interviews he dislikes and so on. Some organizations have resisted. Others have given in. But mounting a defense against even the most ridiculous lawsuits still costs money, time and emotional capital. ....................(more)

https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-polling-polls-lawsuit-lame-duck