President Donald Trump turned his fire on Fox News, during a Fox News interview. When host Martha MacCallum pressed him with new polling that shows voters souring on the economy, Trump snapped that the network should “get a new pollster,” adding the current one “stinks.” He insisted the numbers were an indictment of Fox, not his record.
It started when MacCallum cut in as Trump touted a revival in U.S. manufacturing. She cited Fox’s own survey showing more than half of respondents think the economy has worsened under his administration and noted unemployment is at a multi-year high. “When will people feel that?” she asked. Trump replied that the turnaround will come “when the factories start opening,” then pivoted to slam Fox polling as the “worst” of his career and urged Rupert Murdoch to replace the pollster. MacCallum moved on without challenging the pollster dig, or Trump’s boast that he’s already secured $17 trillion in new investments this term.
The polling backdrop isn’t pretty for the White House. Multiple outlets highlighted Fox’s finding that a majority say conditions are worse, feeding a broader narrative that voters aren’t feeling a boom. Trump, meanwhile, argues his tariff blitz and factory push will pay off “in a year or so.”
The job market is backing up MacCallum’s challenge. The latest federal report showed the economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, with manufacturing shedding 12,000 positions for the month, continuing a 2025 slide for factory work. Health care notched gains, but goods-producing sectors tied to trade and tariffs dragged.
Zoom in on manufacturing and the picture looks even rougher. Government data and private analyses show factory employment falling this year, with durable-goods makers taking the brunt. One recent roundup noted a year-to-date loss of tens of thousands of factory jobs and a sub-50 manufacturing PMI that signals contraction, hardly the backdrop for “numbers like no one has ever seen.”
MOST RECENT FOX NEWS POLL ON TRUMP’S ECONOMY: pic.twitter.com/0TFDHOpcCY
— Fernando Oliver, Esq. (@Fernand46357857) September 19, 2025
Still, Trump kept the bravado. He dismissed Fox’s survey as an outlier and cast himself as the builder-in-chief, saying new plants are “being built all over the country.” He contrasted his claimed $17 trillion in investment with what he said were smaller figures under Joe Biden, whom he accused of leaving the economy “a mess.” MacCallum called the $17 trillion claim “a big number,” but didn’t press for details before moving on.
🚨MAJOR BREAKING:
JOBS NUMBERS ARE OVER A MILLION LOWER THAN WE THOUGHT
Even after Trump fired the numbers chief March job estimates were revised down.
His poll numbers are PLUMMETING faster than the economy. #Trumpflation
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) September 9, 2025
Politically, the dust-up spotlights a risky split-screen, a president promising an industrial renaissance while headline numbers look wobbly. Even friendly forums aren’t buying the vibe. When Fox’s own poll undercuts the message, and a Fox anchor reads it out loud, the reflex to attack the messenger doubles as a reminder that voters judge the economy by price tags and paychecks, not press releases.
What happens next hinges on whether those promised factories actually open, and how fast. If the jobs and paychecks show up, Trump can claim vindication. If not, the clip of him roasting Fox’s pollster may age about as well as the month’s manufacturing numbers. For now, voters are hearing two stories, the boom that’s coming soon, and the bills that are due right now.
