President Donald Trump has offered lots of possible explanations for his unpopularity and low approval ratings. None of them seem to involve any bit of self-reflection or accountability, though. In fact, Trump seems to continue to believe that any reports of people being displeased with him are simply not true (A common defense of his is that he won the 2024 election; therefore, people must continue to be obsessed with him, and reports that suggest otherwise are “fake.”)
While he doesn’t seem to truly believe the approval ratings, that hasn’t stopped him from suggesting that his communications team might be to blame. You know, just in case the reports are actually true?
Most recently, he threw Karoline Leavitt under the bus.
Trump: I got 93% bad publicity. Maybe Karoline is doing a poor job. pic.twitter.com/HINANqxbs9
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2026
When criticizing the White House Press Secretary, he played it off as a joke. Attempting to explain all the “bad publicity,” he actually said that Leavitt might be doing “a terrible job.” Because it obviously has nothing to do with him or his actions.
“I got 93% bad publicity, some people say 97, but between 93 and 97,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday, March 31. “A person that gets 97% of bad … maybe Karoline’s doing a poor job, I don’t know.”
Speaking to her directly, he said, “You’re doing a terrible job.” To make it clear that he was just joking around, he added, “Shall we keep her? I think we’ll keep her.”
He then went on to complain about the “bad publicity.”
Trump, a delusional egomaniac, doesn’t have the introspective skills to see all that bad publicity and think “hmmm, maybe I’m doing a terrible job and need to course correct.” Instead, he deflects and jokingly threatens the job security of his press secretary. https://t.co/PqjdHweUTe
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) March 31, 2026
“But, I get 93-97% bad press, fake press, all fake,” Trump continued. “I won in a landslide. When you get 93-97 bad stories, bad press, and you win in a landslide, you know what that says? People don’t believe the press.”
Is he trying to convince himself or us? These comments are similar to a speech he gave in February. During an event on February 23, he almost acted baffled by his low approval rating…before going on to say that the polls must be “fake” and his supporters are just “silent.”
“I saw one today that I’m at 40 percent,” he said at the time. “40 percent. I’m not at 40 percent, I’m much higher than that.” In Trump’s mind, there are “real” polls and “fake” polls. Of course, all the unfavorable ones are “fake” to him, and the “real” ones say (he’d) kill everybody and it wouldn’t be close.”
Although the reports about people not supporting him are supposedly “fake,” Trump did add that he’s surprised that what he’s doing isn’t more popular. “It just amazes me that there’s not more support out there,” he said. “We actually have silent support. I think it’s silent. I think that’s how I won.”
It’s also not the first time he’s blamed his communications team.
During a White House press briefing on January 20, Trump acted confused about why Americans had complaints about the economy and the overall state of the country. If people aren’t satisfied, it’s not because he’s doing a bad job, he suggested. Instead, maybe his press team isn’t doing enough to communicate how amazing he’s doing.
“We’ve had the best stock market in history, the best 401Ks in history. And we inherited a mess,” he said. “The numbers that we inherited were way up. And now we brought them, almost all of them, way down. I mean, I’m not getting—maybe I have bad public relations people, but we’re not getting it across.”
Staying true to character, he also blamed the media. “I think a lot of people are listening to the fake news a little bit,” he added. “And I’m not blaming anybody. I think I blame ourselves. I think we’ve done a much better job than we’re able to promote. We’re not promoting. We’re doing a great job, and we’re sort of letting the promotion take care of itself.”
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