More people are willing to place their trust in news outlets President Trump has regularly criticized than in the president himself, according to a new poll.
A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found that 58 percent are more likely to trust ABC News — an outlet described as “totally biased and fake news” by Trump — than the president.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would trust MSNBC, which was recently criticized for over-hyping an on-air release of Trump tax documents from 2005, over the president and 37 percent said they would trust Fox News more than Trump.
Fewer than 35 percent said they would trust Trump over ABC or MSNBC, while only 17 percent of respondents said they would trust him over Fox News.
The poll comes at a time of increasing hostility between Trump and the media. In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, the president said the New York Times’ coverage has been “worse” since he entered office and other outlets have covered his administration “viciously and inaccurately.”
But even as some Americans remain reluctant to trust Trump over major news outlets, the media as a whole has suffered a blow to its credibility under Trump.
Nearly 40 percent of respondents in the same poll said traditional media sources have a tendency to publish “fake news” in order to advance a certain narrative or political agenda. And more than 60 percent of Americans said major TV and print outlets are guilty of disseminating “fake news.”
“Many Americans believe that fake news is rampant across all types of media. The main outcome of this phenomenon seems to be that all news media outlets are now eyed with suspicion,” Monmouth University polling director Patrick Murray said in a statement.
The survey of 801 U.S. adults was conducted from March 2-5. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
