If someone wants to look at the polls showing Donald Trump ahead, the best place to look is… Donald Trump’s Twitter account, where the candidate is more than happy to talk about it. And when he’s not touting his own poll numbers, he’s badmouthing someone else’s.
Last weekend, Trump celebrated a just-released Reuters poll that showed him ahead:
New Reuters Poll just came out and has me at 32%, highest number yet.The silent majority is back and we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2015
Early Tuesday morning, Trump responded to a round of criticism from George Pataki on immigration — with a mention of the polls:
.@GovernorPataki did a terrible job as Governor of New York. If he ran again, he would have lost in a landslide. He and Graham ZERO in polls
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
Monmouth University on Tuesday released a poll of South Carolina showing Trump at 30 percent, double the second-place support of Ben Carson at 15 percent, then Jeb Bush 9 percent, and 6 percent each for Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio.
Trump celebrated:
Another good poll result in the great state of SC. Trump at 30%. Carson at 15% and Bush at 9%. http://t.co/FjQfdCrfdT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
The Donald also marked the poll with a taunt against South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham:
Congrats @LindseyGrahamSC. You just got 4 points in your home state of SC—far better than zero nationally. You’re only 26 pts behind me.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2015
Now that’s a burn.
Also on Tuesday, Trump responded to a poll of New Hampshire by Democratic-aligned firm Public Policy Polling, by giving a personal retweet to someone else’s post hailing his lead:
Breaking #News! Public Policy Polling, New Hampshire! @realDonaldTrump skyrockets?to 35%! #Trump2016 #SilentMajority pic.twitter.com/WWRpoxkp2k
— Daniel Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) August 25, 2015
And just today, Friday, The Donald retweeted another message of a national poll showing him way up. (Another fun twist: The person Trump retweeted here has adopted a Twitter pseudonym of “Hank Rearden” after a character in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a wealthy businessman who invents a new metal alloy to use as a building material.)
Trump breaks 40% in OAN / Gravis Marketing scientific poll. Leads closest competitor by 27%. @DanScavino #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/KvSmtNzBE0
— American Hank ن (@_HankRearden) August 25, 2015
Photo: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures after arriving for jury duty at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, August 17, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
