Some prominent MAGA figures are dismissing a run of disastrous midterm polling for Republicans, with several expressing the belief that the numbers are not just wrong but part of a coordinated “psyop” aimed at keeping conservatives home this November.
The accusations spread as President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen and Democrats have gained ground in key races, according to WIRED. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts told Fox Business that recent polling amounted to a “psyop” designed “to depress conservative turnout.”
Steve Bannon echoed that message on his War Room podcast, warning supporters not to accept talk of a Democratic wave. “That psyop is out there pretty strongly,” Bannon said. He argued that Republicans could still determine the outcome if the MAGA base turns out, saying the party’s “fate is still in our hands.”
Online, some Trump supporters have gone even further.
“The laughable fake polls are rolling out,” Phillip Buchanan, the pro-Trump influencer known as Catturd, wrote on X. Seth Keshel, a former Army colonel who has promoted election-fraud claims, declared: “Polling is so unethical now it should be outlawed.”
Another pro-Trump influencer, David Freeman, who posts under the name Gunther Eagleman, argued that polls themselves were bogus because he had never personally been contacted by one. “Polls are fake to sway votes,” he wrote.
Similar claims quickly spread across X.
The pushback comes as Republican anxiety over the midterms has become increasingly public. Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest of his first and second term at 32 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
WIRED separately reported that some Trump aides have privately begun considering the possibility that Republicans could lose both chambers of Congress. One longtime Trumpworld operative gave the outlet a far different assessment from the public claims that the polls are fake: “Oh, yeah, we’re going to get creamed.”
Trump has repeatedly questioned the results of surveys, including negative polling from Iowa this week. WIRED reported that Media Matters has counted 39 instances since Trump returned to office in which he has described polling as fake.
There are signs of disagreement inside Trump’s coalition. Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool recently suggested Trump’s weak numbers could reflect frustration over high gas prices and the war in Iran. However, MAGA commentator Bill Mitchell responded by suggesting the polls themselves could be fake.
The way Trump supporters have reacted to the most recent surveys indicates that there is an increasing division among Trump's supporters as to whether Republicans should see the figures as a warning about growing voter dissatisfaction or regard them as yet another effort to demoralize the party's base.
