Election Deniers Think the GOP’s Terrible Midterm Polling Is a ‘Psyop’

Taking their lead from president Donald Trump, election deniers have dismissed the GOP’s terrible polling numbers by claiming the polls themselves are fake, a psyop, or a ploy to stop Republicans from turning out to vote in November.Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, told Fox News that midterm election polling is a “psyop…to depress conservative turnout.”“The midterms are near,” Phillip Buchanan, the election denier and MAGA troll known online as Catturd, wrote to his four million followers on X. “The laughable fake polls are rolling out.”For over a decade, Trump has claimed without evidence that American elections have been impacted by fraud. In the wake of his loss in 2020, an entire online community and ecosystem of election denial groups sprung up to push the baseless allegation that former president Joe Biden stole the election from Trump. These claims have become central to the Republican Party’s belief system, to the point where hundreds of GOP candidates for federal and statewide elections in November have expressed doubts about the integrity of US elections.And now, multiple polls have shown Trump’s approval rating at historic lows with Democrats leading in Senate races across the country in states Trump won easily in 2024. Reuters reported this week that Republicans are now pouring money into dozens of races they considered safe.Trump has called polls fake 39 times since returning to the White House last year, according to analysis from media watchdog Media Matters for America, including nine times in August alone. In one post on Truth Social last month, he claimed the polls were “demoralization operations” designed by Democrats to stop Republicans from voting. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump again dismissed negative polling out of Iowa and stated: “The polls are fake.”The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment, but as WIRED reported this week, Trump’s own aides are extremely concerned about the polling and the potential loss of both the House and Senate. “Oh, yeah, we're going to get creamed,” one longtime Trumpworld operative told WIRED.While the White House may be worried, figures in the election denial community have repeated Trump’s claims about fake polls.Steve Bannon, who has been among the loudest voices promoting election denial conspiracies for the last six years, also called the recent polling a “psyop,” adding: “I want to make sure everybody understands that our fate is still in our hands, no matter what the media is telling you, no matter what they're saying about a blue tsunami, a blue wave.”Seth Keshel, a former Army colonel-turned election denial superstar who claims to have close ties to the White House, also branded the negative polls a “psyop,” adding on X: “Polling is so unethical now it should be outlawed.”Some MAGA figures have conceded that the low polling numbers reflect the reality of Trump’s failure to keep his promises. When right-wing podcaster and election denier Tim Pool suggested Trump’s low approval rating was the result of high gas prices and the ongoing war in Iran, however, Bill Mitchell, a MAGA political commentator with over half a million followers on X responded: “Maybe it's fake polls.”Dozens and dozens of high profile MAGA influencers have weighed in. “Polls are fake. All 50 States are Red,” Julie Donuts, a prominent booster of election denial conspiracy theories with 220,000 followers on X, wrote. The post was accompanied by an image of a map showing widespread support for Trump that comes from 2016.Kambree Nelson, a MAGA influencer who worked for the America First Policy Institute and once suggested the moon had disappeared for a week, blamed the media for the fake polls, writing: “Theyre [sic] actually running the biggest scam of the election. Fake polls, puffball interviews, all designed to crush our spirit and keep us home. They’re terrified of the momentum they can feel building. Don’t fall for it.”The Maryland Election Integrity Group, which promotes baseless election denial conspiracy theories, shared a post on X that claimed without evidence that “polling has been skewed to favor Democrats by three points on average over the last FIVE cycles.”In recent weeks, some election deniers have even suggested that polls never actually take place. “52 years old. I have never been ‘polled’. Polls are fake to sway votes,” David Freeman, an election denier and pro-Trump influencer known online as Gunther Eagleman, wrote on X.But as one of the top commenters on the post points out, Freeman has repeatedly shared polling that is favorable towards Trump, writing: “Gunther LOVES polls when they are in his favor.”