New Poll Shows More Americans Trust Media (Including CNN) Over Trump

A new SurveyMonkey poll shows more Americans trust CNN, the Washington Post and The New York Times more than President Trump.

Trump, who’s been in a constant battle with the media, comes in 7 points below CNN among all adults when it comes to trust. Among independents, CNN’s lead is even greater at 15 points.

Not surprisingly, however, the issue is divided along partisan lines, with 89 percent of Republicans saying they trust the president more and 91 percent of Democrats believing the opposite to be true.

Among all adults, respondents also said The Washington Post and The New York Times were more trustworthy than Trump by 9 points, as were ABC/CBS/NBC, which came out 11 points ahead of the president.

The online poll of 4,965 adults, taken June 29 to July 3 (error estimate: +/- 2.5 points), found:

• 33% of Republicans say they get their news only from Fox.
• 64% of all adults disapprove of Trump's use of Twitter (89% Dems, 38% Republicans).
• Describing his tweets (all adults): undignified 47% ... mean 34% ... entertaining 26% ... presidential 7%.

Jon Cohen, Survey Monkey's SVP, survey research, emails me his takeaways:

• "A red flag for Democrats continues to be a perception that Trump is isolating himself from the GOP base with his tweets. Not only do most Republicans approve of his use of Twitter, but asked to describe those tweets, the No. 1 mention among the GOP is 'truthful,' with 'entertaining' in second place."
• "[T]he biggest danger for Republicans is that they grow content with firing up the base: Fully three-quarters of pure independents (those that don't lean one way or the other) disapprove of Trump's tweeting, and their top three descriptors for it are 'undignified,' 'mean,' and 'dishonest.'" (Axios)

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According to SurveyMonkey's Jon Cohen, “The fight ... between the White House and major media outlets has made the question of truthfulness just as partisan-tinged as health care or other policies,” Axios reports.

An NPR/Marist College poll released Monday was more promising for the president, with 37 percent of Americans saying they had faith in the Trump administration compared to 30 percent for the media.