Trump claims 'internal' polls he refuses to share show him beating every Democrat

Donald Trump lashed out at public polls on Wednesday, claiming they are “fake” because they don’t match internal polls that show him ahead. But neither Trump nor his campaign has released any evidence to verify the claim that he leads all of his potential 2020 rivals.

“Internal REAL Polls show I am beating all of the Dem candidates,” Trump said. “The Fake News Polls (here we go again, just like 2016) show losing or tied. Their polls will be proven corrupt on November 3rd, just like the Fake News is corrupt!”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for the polling data showing Trump ahead.

Nearly all recent surveys have shown Trump trailing Democratic hopefuls Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg,  Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren in national head-to-head matchups.

But last summer, Trump’s misleading internal polling claims caused his campaign significant embarrassment.

After the New York Times reported internal Trump 2020 polling showing him trailing Biden badly in several key states, Trump tried to gaslight the country and claim they were not real.

“They were fake polls that were released by somebody that is — it’s ridiculous,” Trump complained, saying he was way ahead everywhere. “We do very little polling because I’m not a huge believer in polling… But we have some internal polling — very little — and it’s unbelievably strong. The strongest I’ve ever been is exactly today.”

Days later, the poll memo Trump said did not exist was leaked and proved as bad for him as reported. It showed Biden ahead by double digits in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, up by 7 points in Florida, and within 2 points in Texas.

Rather than apologize for the exposed lie, the campaign simply tried to minimize the importance of polling. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, told CBS News that all poll numbers are meaningless today.

“The country is too complex now just to call a couple of hundred people and ask them what they think,” he told the network. “The polling can’t understand that and that’s why it was so wrong in 2016. It was 100% wrong. Nobody got it right. Not one public poll.”

National polling in 2016 correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the popular vote, though most state polling in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin incorrectly showed her leading in those states.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.