The 2026 midterm election is a little over a month away, and you can tell when watching the Elitist Media evening news. There is now a deliberate effort underway to push polling DOOM as conventional wisdom, in service of Democrat majorities in the next Congress.
Watch as the CBS Evening News stuck polling doom into its White House roundup, citing President Trump’s negative polling number but no other comparable data point:
embed
CBS EVENING NEWS
9/28/26
6:41 PM
TONY DOKOUPIL: We turn to politics now. President Trump's approval rating has hit an historic low- 37% according to a new Wall Street Journal poll. President George W. Bush polled at similar numbers just before the midterms in 2006 and his party went on to lose both the House and the Senate. Our Nancy Cordes has more now from The White House.
DONALD TRUMP: I love Iowa. I've always been very strong with Iowa.
NANCY CORDES: On the hunt for economic wins, President Trump touted today a planned steel mill in Iowa that is slated to open in 2030.
TRUMP: We have the best economy, the biggest investment in the history of our country.
CORDES: The economy is growing and unemployment is low. But high inflation and high gas prices due to the war with Iran have pushed Trump's approval ratings on the economy to near-record lows. And that is causing headwinds for GOP candidates like Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who’s running for Senate.
ASHLEY HINSON: We need a resolution to end the war as quickly as possible and the President can do that.
CORDES: Hinson was in the Oval Office today when Trump was asked why he thinks his party is struggling in Iowa, a state he won by 13 points.
TRUMP: I'm surprised. I- first of all, the polls are fake.
CORDES: Over the weekend, Trump rejected Iran's latest offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz calling the terms unacceptable. Today a U.S. official confirmed that 8 Marines were injured in an Iranian attack earlier this month, bringing the total number of wounded service members to 861. Tony.
DOKOUPIL: Nancy, thank you very much.
You’ll notice that there is no specific poll cited in the report. There is only the reference to Trump’s negatives on Iran and the economy, but no citation as to where the data is coming from. There is little more than a clumsy insertion of a reference to negative polls, with the expectation that the viewer will understand the message.
NBC ran a similar report on the Nightly News:
Embed nbc
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
9/28/26
TOM LLAMAS: Tonight, President Trump saying Iran's recent offer to open the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. meets its demands is unacceptable. But the U.S. is still talking with the regime. Our Gabe Gutierrez at The White House today pressing the president back.
DONALD TRUMP: In fact, they’re all coming back...
GABE GUTIERREZ: Tonight, President Trump telling us that U.S. talks with the Iranian regime are still on through mediators. Has your team spoken to Iran today?
TRUMP: Yeah, they have.
GUTIERREZ: Despite President Trump rejecting Iran's latest offer where it said it would stop attacking commercial oil tankers and reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. meets its demands.
TRUMP: We're going to win that war very soon. It’ll be over. And the gas and gas prices will come tumbling down.
GUTIERREZ: The administration now argues it has the upper hand in negotiations, though it's in no hurry.
TRUMP: Massive amounts of oil are coming out through the Hormuz Strait. (VIDEO SWIPE) I like making a deal too but I'm not- that deal would not be acceptable.
GUTIERREZ: But the war and stubbornly high gas prices, averaging around $4.48 a gallon, pressuring Republicans with less than 40 days to go until the midterms. The president today touting a new $15 billion steel mill to be built in Iowa.
TRUMP: The largest steel plant in American history. In the great state of Iowa.
GUTIERREZ: A state he won by 13 points in 2024. We pressed the president why recent polls show much tighter races for the Senate and House this year. Why are Republicans do you think, having to work so hard to hold on to these seats?
TRUMP: I don't know, I love Iowa, I've always been very strong with Iowa… (VIDEO SWIPE) …but I'm surprised. First of all, the polls are fake.
GUTIERREZ: Iran says it's prepared for a, quote, “Doomsday War,” but that it stands ready for diplomacy. The president, late today flatly denying a report that he’d offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear concessions. Tom.
LLAMAS: Gabe, thank you.
Gabe Gutierrez hits on some of the same notes as did Nancy Cordes. His reference to polling numbers for the president, though, is much softer than what we saw in Cordes’s report. Nonetheless, Gutierrez asked his indirect poll question and got a reaction from President Trump.
It bears repeating that you see mentions of unfavorable presidential approval ratings but no specific poll citation. Why is this, you might ask? For starters, the American public has conveyed that they don’t have much affection for Democrats, either. This complicates their messaging.
Expect to see more of this particular use of polling, or references to polling, as the election approaches. We leave you with the words of the great Rush Limbaugh, which ring as true today as when he first uttered them live:
The polls are just being used as another tool of voter suppression. The polls are an attempt to not reflect public opinion, but to shape it. Yours. They want to depress the heck out of you.
