The president of the United States, Donald Trump, posted a message on his Truth Social network this Saturday, claiming that recent polls show him "six times more popular than Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or any other president" who has governed the country, a statement supported by data from a survey conducted exclusively among Republican voters.
In the same post, Trump praised CNN data analyst Harry Enten for releasing the results of that poll, while launching attacks against the network and MSNBC —which he nicknamed "MSNOW," his new name for the station— claiming that both are in a "death spiral" and that no one is watching them.
"The best person at CNN is the pollster Harry Enten, because he was willing to show that Donald J. Trump is six times more popular than Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or any other president. He has credibility (Don’t fire him!)", wrote the president on his Truth Social account.
The survey on which Trump bases his claim was jointly conducted by CNN and the company SSRS from May 7 to May 31, 2026, with a total sample of 2,480 adults and a margin of error of ±2.7 percentage points for the entire sample.
Among the more than 1,200 respondents who identified as Republicans —with a margin of error of ±5.2 points for that subgroup— 53% named Trump as the president they admire most, while 18% chose Ronald Reagan, 8% chose Lincoln, and 5% chose Washington.
The comparison of "six times more popular" arises from dividing Trump's percentage by that of Lincoln or Washington, but the survey completely excludes those who do not identify with the Republican Party, which considerably limits the scope of the claim.
Presenting the data on CNN, Enten was clear about what the numbers really indicate: "This is a dose of reality; Donald Trump remains the sun around which the planets of the Republican Party orbit."
The analyst also referenced a survey from Elon University with similar results, which reinforces Trump's strength within his base, although not beyond it.
The landscape changes dramatically when the pool of respondents is expanded. Trump's overall approval among all adult Americans hovered around 37% in April 2026, with a disapproval rating of 63%, according to NBC News/SurveyMonkey.
Additionally, a survey by Financial Times and Focaldata from August 2026 revealed that Trump's net approval among Republican voters had dropped by eight points compared to the previous month, indicating a decline even within his own party.
Enten himself had noted in another context that Trump had accumulated more than 494 consecutive days with a net negative approval rating in polls that meet CNN's methodological standards, a fact that contrasts with the narrative of historical popularity that the president projects on his social media.
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