Fact Check: Did the FCC find unfavorable polls were manipulated to defame Donald Trump?
WASHINGTON, DC: Amid low approval ratings of President Donald Trump, an allegation is circulating on social media platforms claiming that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found polls were manipulated to make Trump look bad. The claim has sparked outrage and speculation, requiring a fact-check.
Claim: FCC found polls were manipulated to defame Donald Trump
According to a viral Facebook post, an investigation by the FCC has identified more than 20 polls that were changed to defame the president.
The post was accompanied by an article that stated that the commission’s newly formed “Polling Integrity Division” has referred “more than 20 instances of documented poll manipulation” to the Department of Justice.
It further alleged that “major media organizations systematically altered survey results, sampling methodologies, and also respondent demographics to create a false narrative of electoral weakness” about Trump’s 2024 campaign.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr allegedly called the findings “the most significant media fraud since the invention of the telephone survey,” including evidence of “mathematical adjustments” that “transformed comfortable Trump leads into apparent deficits.”
The claim drew criticisms from conservative accounts, indicating that many appeared to believe the claim to be true, while others dismissed it as fake.
Fact Check: The claim originated as satire
However, the claim is false, as there is no evidence of an investigation by the FCC that found that polls were manipulated to defame the president.
There are no official statements, announcements, or press releases by the commission that allege manipulation of the polls about Trump.
There are also no records of Carr making the above-mentioned remarks. If the claim were true, it would have created a huge controversy, making headlines. But a search on Google for the claim yielded no credible news reports that support the rumor.
Moreover, the claim was posted by a Facebook account called ‘America’s Last Line Of Defense,’ which describes itself in the bio as ‘Nothing on this page is real.’
Donald Trump calls unfavorable polls 'fake'
The claim surfaced after Trump dismissed recent unfavorable polling, calling it part of a Democratic effort to discourage Republicans and slamming the surveys as “fake polls,” accusing the “Radical Left Democrats” of running what he described as “Demoralization Operations.”
Trump was referring to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released two weeks back that put his approval rating at 33%, the lowest rating of his current presidency, with 64% of respondents disapproving of his performance.
