Trump to Fox: “Fire Your Pollster!” — After Polls Roast His Economy

The on-air squirm

In a one-on-one with Martha MacCallum, Trump was asked flatly about ugly polling on the economy — and his response was equal parts deflection and demand for personnel changes at Fox. After the host cited a survey showing 52% of voters think the economy is worse under his administration, Trump shrugged and said the remedy was obvious: factories opening and, for good measure, a new pollster for Rupert Murdoch. “Go get yourself a new pollster because he stinks,” he told MacCallum.

The numbers nobody wants to cuddle

The Fox national survey (Sept. 6–9, 1,004 registered voters, ±3%) found 52% saying the economy is worse, 30% saying it’s better, and 18% seeing no change. Those numbers land on top of fresh economic data: employers added just 22,000 jobs last month, unemployment ticked to 4.3% — the highest since 2021 — and the Fed trimmed its key rate by a quarter point amid uncertainty. Not exactly a festive backdrop for swaggering promises.

Timeline optimism: “probably, in a year or so”

Asked when voters would feel improvement, Trump offered his standard future-perfect: “Probably, in a year or so,” citing factories relocating to the U.S. thanks to tariff policy. Translation: the cure is coming — just not in the next polling cycle.

Echoes of April: the administration vs. the numbers

This isn’t the first time the White House has slammed Fox polling. Back in April, Fox’s John Roberts and then-Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller sparred over the network’s figures — with Miller saying the network needed to “fire its pollster.” Now the president has amplified that message on camera.

Experts and onlookers: blunt math, not wishful thinking

Republican pollster Daron Shaw (one of the Fox poll’s co-directors) offered a sober note: prices don’t just need to stop rising — they need to come down. “If not, 2026 will be a bad year for the GOP,” he warned. In short: job counts and grocery bills matter more than optimistic factory timelines or requests for new polling contractors.

What happens next

The economy remains voters’ top concern (37% in the Fox poll). If employment and prices don’t improve soon, the call to blame pollsters will look less like a zinger and more like damage control. In the meantime, expect more presidential interviews, defensive tweets, and, as always, colorful takes on who’s to blame — human pollsters included.