Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the media at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport on October 30, 2024 (Getty)
A full catalogue of the meltdowns that Donald Trump has had during the presidential election race could probably fill a set of encyclopaedias at this point. But his latest one, about election polls, is a doozy.
It started on 2 November, where the highly respected Des Moines Register published their nationally recognised Iowa Poll, which showed Kamala Harris picking up support from women to surpass Donald Trump in the state.
Iowa is a staunchly Republican stronghold that Trump previously won twice, and until recently Iowa election polls gave the former president a 4-point lead over Harris.
“A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters,” said the publication, in an article about the result that has essentially blown the wheels off the last days of Trump’s campaign.
Trump has – unsurprisingly – not taken this news terribly well. Shortly after the Register published the latest election poll results, Trump published an item on his social media platform condemning the data as “heavily skewed … by a Trump hater.”
The “Trump hater” in question is pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., the firm who conducts the Iowa Poll. Interestingly, Trump previously praised her as “a great pollster — actually very, very powerful pollster, very good, talented pollster,” MSNBC reports. Trump also referred to her as his “enemy.”
But that’s not all. Just a few hours later Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania, and referred to the release of election polling data he didn’t like as “suppression. They suppress. And it actually should be illegal.” He also described election polls – the ones he doesn’t approve of, that is – as “corrupt.”
Trump on Iowa Poll: It is called suppression. They suppress. And it actually should be illegal. pic.twitter.com/B95OIHgFYq
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 3, 2024
In the aftermath of the Iowa Poll, Trump’s team also put out what The New Republic referred to as a “a crazed memo accusing pollsters of conspiring against him.”
The memo says: “Top Democrats appear to have received early access to an absurd outlier poll of Iowa conducted by the Des Moines Register. Not to be outdone, the New York Times arrived right on cue with another set of polling data being used to drive a voter suppression narrative against President Trump’s supporters.”
J. Ann Selzer responded directly to Trump’s claims, saying that it’s common for candidates to question unfavourable polling.
“I think this poll stands a good chance of motivating Republicans to get out and vote,” Selzer told the Des Moines Register. “They may have thought they’d win easily. So, it’s hard to think it’s suppression.”
Selzer also spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who recently faced mocking attacks from Trump – the ex-president misgendered Cooper, who is gay, referring to him as “Allison.”
In her conversation with Cooper, Selzer said: “We did (the poll) the way we did it when he won in our final poll twice in two election cycles… the very same method.” She added that there would be no benefit or advantage to her, or her career as a pollster, by messing with the numbers to skew the results a particular way.
