More Americans Deem President Trump The 'Enemy Of The People'


More Americans believe President Donald Trump is the “enemy of the people,” rather than the media, according to a survey conducted by MediaPost’s Research Intelligencer and Pollfish.

The survey, which was conducted Thursday and may have been influenced by the unprecedented coordinated editorial initiative published by hundreds of American newspapers, found that slightly more respondents (43.8%) deem President Trump “more the enemy of the people” than the media (42.0%). Only 14.3% of the respondents cited “neither.”

advertisement

advertisement

A significantly higher percentage of Americans (57.5%) said it is “dangerous for President Trump to call American journalists the “enemy of the people.” Only 28.3% said it’s not, while 14.3% said they weren’t sure.

Even more Americans (58.5%) said it is the job of the press to be critical of the President. Less than one-third (31.3%) said it’s not, and 10.3% said they’re not sure.

5 comments about "More Americans Deem President Trump The 'Enemy Of The People'".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Jon Last from Sports and Leisure Research Group, August 17, 2018 at 11:19 a.m.

    Interesting, and one might say misleading, spin on the headline and lead, given that the incidence of those selecting the president and the media were statistically equivalent (the difference is within the standard margin of error).  

    To me, the more compelling take-away is that equal groups of those surveyed picked each choice, which shows the uncertainty and distrust of both.  To me (a former national president of the Marketing Research Association) without passing my own judgement on the topic, a survey like this seems leading and is only apt to fan the flames of divisiveness. 

    I guess I'll stick to writing about sports marketing, but just wanted to level set from a researcher's perspective.

  2. Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., August 17, 2018 at 11:29 a.m.

    @Jon Last: Well, to quote Trump: "Any negative polls are fake news." We can debate headline writing, methodology, statistical deviation, margins of error, etc., but those are the results of the poll we fielded. And honestly, the real story is that we even had to poll Americans on who they feel is more of an enemy of the people.

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 17, 2018 at noon

    Jon, I agree with you about the headline perhaps overstating wiat is essentially a tie. However, the interesting stats from this small sample study are the small sizes of the "neither" or "not sure" responses to all of the questions. I would have assumed that this is an indication of "independents'" thinking but if so, then a lot of independents must have alredy made up their minds on the sunjects raised and are now in one camp or another. Assuming that the study refelcts current reality---despite its small sample size and other possible issues---it may all boil down to how a relative handfull of Americans ---those still on the fence----may be swayed by either political side come election time. That's a scary propisition for me to contemplate.

  4. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, August 17, 2018 at 12:23 p.m.

    We all should be ashamed of ourselves in regards to education in history and civics (the core of any iota of benefits of breathing we have). People say they believe in the constitution. Have they read it or know what it means for them but trust it ? We are a disgrace.

  5. Michael Margolies from Consultant/mentor, August 19, 2018 at 12:40 p.m.

    Let’s see now, a vastly out numbered President battling a highly organized liberal media whose expertise is literally to control the thinking and biases of the masses manages to arrive at a tie over who is least trusted. Where is the story about how the medi persists in touting its own trustworthyness while perpetually lieu get to the public and still barely manages to convince us it’s only slightly more trustworthy than the most devisive president in our history?

    seems your both winning at being losers with the only real question is which one is truely worse. Ultimately we will be rid of Trump in 2-6 years. Sadly, we are left with our highly disdainful media forever.

    Perhaps a better headline would be half of all Americans don’t trust the President nor the media which has been peddling that mistrust equally.

Next story loading loading..