Former President Donald Trump has a history of citing junk online polls to claim he won presidential debates that scientific polls found he actually lost. This habit dates back to his debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and continued in 2020 against Joe Biden. After a recent debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump claimed victory based on online polls, despite scientific polls showing Harris as the clear winner. While Trump insisted that “every poll” had him winning, the reality was that only unscientific junk polls favored him, while reputable scientific polls showed Harris as the winner.
Three scientific polls conducted by established nonpartisan pollsters following the debate all found that Harris had performed better than Trump. A CNN poll showed 63% of respondents said Harris did better, while a YouGov poll had 54% favoring Harris. A Leger poll conducted for the New York Post also showed Harris winning by a significant margin. Even scientific debate polls from both Democratic and Republican pollsters indicated that Harris was ahead. While no poll is perfect, the clear consensus from scientific polls was that Trump’s claim of winning every poll was false.
In line with his past behavior, Trump relied on junk polls to support his claim of winning the debate. These online polls, such as one from Newsmax, allowed for multiple responses from individuals regardless of their age or location. While these polls may generate engagement for media outlets and social media accounts, they are not an accurate gauge of public opinion. Trump cited an 80-20 lead in a C-SPAN poll, which was also a junk poll conducted through the open question on social media platform X.
Despite the evidence from reputable scientific polls showing that Harris won the debate, Trump continued to assert his victory based on unreliable junk polls. These polls allowed for manipulation and multiple responses, rendering them ineffective in representing the true public opinion on the debate. Trump’s consistent reliance on unscientific polls to bolster his claims of success in debates reveals a pattern of behavior that prioritizes misleading narratives over objective truth.
