Donald Trump
Donald John TrumpPaul Ryan defends Navy admiral after Trump's criticism Trump discussing visit overseas to troops following criticism: report Retired Army General: Trump is ‘acting like an 8th grader’ in attacking ex-Navy SEAL who led bin Laden operation MORE, Jr., on Friday shared a doctored image of a CNN graphic that inaccurately stated that his father had a 50 percent approval rating in a Gallup poll.
The graphic, which Trump Jr. posted on Instagram on Thursday, appears to come from a Monday segment on CNN during which host John King fact checked the president’s previous tweet claiming that Trump has “better numbers than Obama at this point, by far.”
Presidential Approval numbers are very good - strong economy, military and just about everything else. Better numbers than Obama at this point, by far. We are winning on just about every front and for that reason there will not be a Blue Wave, but there might be a Red Wave!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018
The original graphic shows Trump with a 40 percent approval rating, compared to former President Obama’s 45 percent approval rating from the same point of his presidency. However, the one shared by Trump, Jr., is doctored to show a 50 percent approval rating.
“Amazing. I guess there is a magic wand to make things happen and @realdonaldtrump seems to have it,” Trump Jr. wrote in the Instagram post.
Trump has never received a 50 percent job approval rating in the Gallup weekly tracker of the measurement.Donald Trump Jr.
— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) August 10, 2018Donald (Don) John TrumpTrump Jr.'s India trip cost taxpayers nearly 0K: report Social media explodes over Avenatti arrest Mueller targets Stone in final push MORE posted these blatantly (and poorly) doctored poll results on his Insta. pic.twitter.com/6U2JvrNygh
He has reached a high of 45 percent twice, once just days after his inauguration and again in mid-June.
The Hill has reached out to Trump Jr.’s spokesperson for comment.
During the segment, King pulled up numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Treasury Department and other government sources to compare statistics from under Obama to those under Trump.
King described Trump and Obama as having “roughly the same” approval rating at this point of their presidencies, citing the Gallup poll.
The host also noted that Obama took office during a recession and that Trump became president during a period of economic growth, which also impacted the statistics.
-Updated at 11:12 a.m.
