Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, told Fox News host John Roberts on-air Tuesday that the network should “fire its pollster.”
Miller responded to Roberts’ citation of a recent Fox News survey showing Trump “underwater” on key issues—59% disapproval on inflation and 58% on tariffs. Miller brushed off the findings, noting that Fox News polls were tilting toward former Vice President Kamala Harris to win the election as recently as the summer of 2024.
“I don’t want to make things awkward for you, John, but it is our opinion that Fox News needs to fire its pollster,” Miller said. “But, I won’t surprise you with that. I don’t think you’re surprised that I’m saying that. But the Fox News pollster has always been wrong about President Trump. They were the ones who said all summer long that Kamala Harris was gonna be the 47th president of the United States. So, we don’t acknowledge any of that polling.”
Following the segment, Roberts, unsurprisingly, said that his network “stands by” its poll.
“You might have been watching earlier when Stephen Miller joined us here on America Reports. He made a remark that was critical of our polling, but here at Fox News, we stand by our polling as we always have,” Roberts said.
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In the lead-up to the election, Fox News released several polls with differing outcomes on the Harris–Trump matchup. A September 18 survey showed Harris ahead 50% to 48%, and an August 28 poll gave her a two-point edge in Georgia.
By October, however, national Fox News polls shifted in Trump’s favor: an October 16 survey had him leading 50% to 48%, and an October 23 poll also showed Trump with a slight advantage.
In response to his first 100 days in office, Fox News polls indicate that Trump has a 55% approval rating for his handling of border security and a 47% approval rating for his immigration policies. However, his handling of foreign policy, taxes, and deportations has received a higher disapproval rating.
Other polls have claimed that Trump’s approval rating across a range of issues is cratering, but especially his overall job approval rating. But other pollsters who have a history of accuracy regarding Trump’s presidential polling and overall standing with the American people have, like Miller, rejected those, saying their information doesn’t show that.
One of them is Matt Towery, who took to the Fox News airwaves Monday night to reveal to host Laura Ingraham that Trump isn’t tanking, he’s maintaining his popularity thanks to him sticking with the program he ran on: Border security, returning jobs to America, getting fairer trade deals, and lowering prices.
“None of them, to be honest with you,” Towery said regarding the accuracy of the raft of ‘Dump Trump’ polling. “I have a group of pollsters I look at who are public pollsters who’ve been right in all three of Trump’s cycles. We happen to be one of those. None of us have had him down by any of these numbers we’ve seen before. The only one that might concern me at all is the Fox News one because Fox did well in the 24 cycle.”
The Fox News host asked Towery whether he was troubled by recent ABC News, CBS News, and CNN polls showing a huge drop in voters’ approval of Trump’s job performance and his handling of key issues.
“I looked at some of them. They are absolutely, I don’t like to criticize polling, but how can you have a poll, as John McLaughlin, a good friend of mine pointed out, how could you have a poll that shows Donald Trump at 39%?” Towery asked. “But yet when you ask people who they voted for and they said they voted for Trump, like 95% said they would vote for him again.”
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“He’s not in free fall. He’s had a little bit of slippage because he’s doing a lot. He’s breaking a lot of eggs to make an omelet, but he is not dropping in any significant way. I can guarantee you, and I’m just not paying any attention to this nonsense. They were wrong in the elections in the past, and they’re going to be wrong about his approval rating as well,” the pollster added.