Working with Scott Clement and Emily Guskin of The Washington Post polling department, the Fact Checker team developed a poll designed to test whether President Trump’s repeated false claims are being accepted as true by the American public.
The Post has never conducted this type of poll, and it serves as the most comprehensive examination of whether Trump’s false and misleading claims have taken root among the broader American public.
The survey included 18 pairs of opposing statements — one true, one false — without identifying who made the statement. Eleven questions gauging belief in false claims by Trump were mixed among four false claims by Democrats, a true claim by Trump and two probing other factual statements.
Fewer than 3 in 10 Americans — including fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans — believe these or several other prominent claims by the president, according to the poll. Only among a pool of strong Trump approvers — about 1 in 6 adults in the survey — did large majorities accept several, though not all, of his falsehoods as true. Among the falsehoods tested were four that are listed on the Fact Checker’s list of Bottomless Pinocchios — claims that president has repeated more than 20 times.
Read the full story — and take the poll yourself — by following this link.
Send us facts to check by filling out this form
Sign up for the Fact Checker weekly newsletter
The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles