Trump just tried to claim that TV ratings are in fact the 'real polls' and it's gone horribly wrong

President Trump is well known for his love of love of "alternative facts".

Now it seems he's graduated to alternative definitions too. Specifically those that make him look good.

Because while the polls are showing a stark turn in public opinion, he's decided that the polls aren't real polls. The real polls are actually... TV ratings.

Latest polls (real polls, that is) released this week show Trump's approval rating sits at 40 per cent, but a record 58 per cent of voters disapprove.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who will go head-to-head against Trump in the November election, is ahead by 8 percentage points, with an approval rating of 52 per cent.

This should be seriously concerning to the president, whose handling of the coronavirus crisis has been heavily criticised for months, with the US now having the highest death rate of anywhere in the world.

The resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd should also be weighing heaving on the president given his opponent's notorious popularity with voters of colour, which Hilary Clinton lacked in 2016.

But instead of considering his own failings here, Trump has decided that all is well because people are watching him on TV.

In a tweet posted this morning, Trump appears to suggest the polls are an invention of the "fake news media", on the basis that his speech at his controversial Tulsa rally last weekend have "the highest Saturday television ratings in Fox News history".

According to Fox News, 7.7 million viewers watched his rally, which is around 2.3 per cent of the US population.

Even assuming they were all watching in support of the president, it's still a very tiny proportion of voters. Much smaller, in fact, than the 40 per cent approval rating the "fake" polls reported...

It seems Trump has – not for the first time – got it all a bit twisted, and people understandably reacted with the glee we all reserve for the never-ending Trump own-goals.

Just another day in the bizarre Trumpiverse then.