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Trump threatens pollsters after New York Times survey shows sagging disapproval

“Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump leaves after a signing ceremony.

President Donald Trump leaves after a signing ceremony of his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2026. | Markus Schreiber/AP

By Gregory Svirnovskiy01/22/2026 09:45 AM ESTUpdated: 

President Donald Trump threatened legal consequences for The New York Times after a poll released by the outlet found that independent voters have soured on his leadership at the one-year mark of his second term.

Just 34 percent of independent voters told the New York Times/Siena poll that they approve of the president’s job performance. Fifty-two percent of independents told the Times that they believe the country is worse off than it was last year before Trump took office, while 24 percent said it’s now in a better place. The president took to Truth Social to vent his frustration on Thursday.

“The Times Siena Poll, which is always tremendously negative to me, especially just before the Election of 2024, where I won in a Landslide, will be added to my lawsuit against The Failing New York Times,” Trump wrote on Thursday. “Our lawyers have demanded that they keep all Records, and how they ‘computed’ these fake results — Not just the fact that it was heavily skewed toward Democrats. They will be held fully responsible for all of their Radical Left lies and wrongdoing!”

“Fake and Fraudulent Polling should be, virtually, a criminal offense,” he wrote in a subsequent post.

Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement posted to social media that the paper’s polls “have been widely cited for their rigor” as he dismissed the president’s criticism.

“President Trump likes polls that appear favorable to him and dislikes polls that do not,” Stadtlander said. “But whether a poll is good or bad for the president has no bearing on our methodology.”

Trump’s threats come as the president gets set to barnstorm the country in the months leading up to November, starting with a speech on the economy and energy in Iowa next week.

But the poll suggests Trump and national Republicans could have a difficult road ahead as they seek to maintain control of Congress amid a midterm environment that could favor Democrats come the fall.

In the poll, Trump was more than 10 points underwater on issues including Venezuela (41 percent to 53 percent), the economy (40 percent to 58 percent) and managing the federal government (42 percent to 56 percent).

Voters’ approval ratings on the president’s immigration policies, which helped drive his successful 2024 campaign for the White House, also raise red flags. Just 40 percent of voters approve of his immigration agenda, with 58 percent of voters expressing disapproval.

Independents panned the president’s deportation agenda. Seventy-one percent of independent voters said ICE had gone too far in its enforcement efforts throughout the country.

Trump previously said he believes the key to shoring up his party’s political path lies in convincing the electorate that Republicans are cleaning up an economy left damaged by former President Joe Biden.

“Pricing,” he told POLITICO in a late December interview, will ultimately decide who voters back.

“I think it’s going to be about the success of our country. It’ll be about pricing,” he said. “Because, you know, they gave us high pricing, and we’re bringing it down. Energy’s way down. Gasoline is way down.”

The New York Times/Siena poll was conducted by live interviews or text message Jan. 12-17, with a random sample of 1,625 adults. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.