Donald Trump’s approval rating SOARS after meeting Putin, with ‘fake news’ fuelling rise

A new survey from NBC-Wall Street Journal revealed the US President’s approval rating is at 45 percent, up one point since June marking it a new high since his inauguration in January 2017.

Pollster Fred Yang said the increase in his popularity is linked to the media coverage of him.

Mr Yang said: “The more Trump gets criticised by the media, the more his base seems to rally behind him.”

In the same poll it shows that 53 percent of Republicans approve of Mr Trump’s handling of Russia compared to only 6 percent of Democrats.

Tweeting from his golf course in New Jersey, Mr Trump reinforced his meeting with Putin went well despite previous contradicting statements.

He tweeted: “I had a GREAT meeting with Putin and the Fake News used every bit of their energy to try and disparage it. So bad for our country!”

Mr Trump and Putin met in Helsinki, Finland, after an eventful week at the Nato summit and touring the UK.

During their press conference Mr Trump raised eyebrows when he sided with Putin and contradicted his own intelligence agencies on the issue of the Kremlin’s efforts to influence the 2016 Presidential election.

Mr Trump said: “They said they think it’s Russia.

“I have President Putin; he just said it’s not Russia.

“President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

However, a few days later the US President made a U-turn and claimed he misspoke during the Helsinki summit.

He said: “I have full faith and support for America’s great intelligence agencies, I always have.

“And I have felt very strongly that, while Russia’s actions had no impact at all on the outcome of the election, let me be totally clear in saying that, and I have said this many times, I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place.

“It could be other people, also. There are lots of people out there.”

Now it appears Mr Trump has changed his tune again as he took to Twitter on Sunday to say Russia’s interference in the Presidential election was “all a big hoax”.

He tweeted: “So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election. Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!”

Former presidential candidate and one of Mr Trump’s strongest allies Newt Gingrich branded the comments during the meeting with Putin “the most serious mistake of his presidency” and urged the US President to immediately correct himself.

Mr Trump has also received damning comments from the former CIA director John Brennan, who said the President’s conduct at the summit conference was “treasonous”.

The former intelligence chief asserted that Mr Trump’s statement was “nothing short of treasonous” and that he was “wholly in the pocket of Putin”.

After Mr Trump and Putin hailed their summit a success the US President has extended an invitation for the Russian leader to a second meeting. 

However, neither Mr Trump nor the White House has confirmed any agreements between the two countries.

US Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted yesterday announcing that President Trump had asked for Putin to be invited to Washington this autumn.

She said: ”President Trump asked (national security adviser John Bolton) to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway”.

There is currently an investigation into the possible collusion between Mr Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

US intelligence services have concluded Russian agents had attempted to influence the election in Trump’s favour through a coordinated campaign of fake news and social media bots.

So far 32 individuals and three companies have been either been indicted as part of the probe.

Five of these individuals have pleaded guilty, including three former Trump advisors, although none of the crimes they have admitted to directly relate to collusion with Russia.