Trump fumes over low popularity

Seventy-five percent would make Trump easily one of the most popular leaders on the planet.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Donald Trump says the polls have it all wrong, so on Thursday he calculated his own popularity rating: 75 percent.

The Republican began reflecting on his approval numbers with an overnight tweet celebrating a new poll that gave him 50 percent.

"Working hard, thank you!" he wrote on a tweet featuring a huge "50%" superimposed over a picture of Trump clapping at a campaign rally.

The only problem is that the pollsters coming up with that number, Rasmussen, are serious outliers.

All other polling companies, like Gallup, give Trump considerably lower ratings, with an average of just 43 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.com.

The other problem is that 50 percent -- which creeps up from Rasmussen’s previous 49 percent -- doesn’t exactly set the world on fire either.

So early Thursday, Trump tweeted again, this time stating that his bad numbers are caused by the growing probe into alleged improper, or even criminal, links between the president and Russia.

"Without the phony Russia Witch Hunt... my approval rating would be at 75% rather than the 50% just reported by Rasmussen," he wrote. "It’s called Presidential Harassment!"

Seventy-five percent would make Trump easily one of the most popular leaders on the planet.

He’d even streak ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose long soaring ratings have taken a hit recently, despite being able to control most of his country’s media.