It’s close, but slightly more Americans reportedly trust the White House to tell them the truth more than the news media. A recent Fox News poll found that 45 percent trusted the Trump administration more to “tell the public the truth” than reporters who cover the White House while 42 percent trust reporters more. One in 10 people say they trust neither. There’s also strong consensus—68 percent—that the media have been tougher on Trump than they were on Barack Obama.
Whether a registered voter trusts the administration has a lot to do with his or her political affiliation. More than 8-in-10 Republicans say they trust the White House more than reporters, while 79 percent of Democrats say they trust reporters more.
The poll—which interviewed 1,013 registered voters before Trump’s press conference in which he railed against the media—also found that while people may not trust reporters, 55 percent said the media should “cover the president aggressively.” And even though the president often celebrates his lack of filter, it seems voters aren’t so enthusiastic about that. A whopping 71 percent of voters said that Trump “should be more careful about what he says and how he says it” while only 28 percent said that they “like that he speaks his mind.”
This latest poll came shortly after the Gallup poll found that Trump’s approval rating stands at 39 percent. It marks the first time in the history of the Gallup poll that a president had an approval rating below 50 percent in his first month.
Also significant, nearly half of Americans (46 percent) strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance, which is higher than the strong disapproval for Barack Obama at any point of his presidency. While new presidents often get the benefit of the doubt from members of the opposing party, only 8 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents approve of Trump. That is “by far the lowest rating for any new president from the opposing party in more than three decades.”
