Kathrine Frich
She blamed the polling industry.
Family loyalty often gets tested when the numbers start looking ugly. On live television, defending a relative becomes much harder when your own network brings out the receipts.
That awkward reality played out on air this week as a sudden drop in voter support put a prominent political voice on the spot.
Steep voter drop
On Tuesday, Fox News anchor John Roberts confronted Lara Trump with a grim survey from their own network ahead of the midterms.
As HuffPost reported, the president’s daughter-in-law and former Republican National Committee co-chair had to answer for sliding support among core voting groups.
Roberts pointed first to rural communities. “63% went for your father-in-law in 2024. That number now supporting the GOP is down to 49%. That’s a change of 14 points to the negative,” he told her on the broadcast.
The slide did not stop in small towns.
Roberts also highlighted a major dip among Hispanic voters, telling his colleague, “43% supported Donald Trump in 2024; the support for the GOP is now down to 31%. That is a minus 12-point change. What do you think is going on? Is that being driven by policy, or is it being driven by the fact that, even though he’s out on the stump literally every day, he’s not on the ballot?”
Blaming the pollsters
Rather than looking at policy, Lara Trump aimed her frustration directly at the people taking the surveys. According to HuffPost, the Fox News host argued that conservative and rural Americans simply refuse to talk to researchers because they believe the system is broken.
“I think the establishment in the polling industry overall really doesn’t understand the connection that Donald Trump has with voters,” she told Roberts during the segment.
Pointing to past victories in 2016 and 2024, she insisted the current figures could not be trusted. She also predicted a major surprise when ballots are finally counted.
“And I think on November 4th, I think you may see a huge disparity between what those polls have shown us all the way up to Election Day… and what actually ultimately happens,” she said on Fox News.
Still, the broader political picture looks tough for Republicans. HuffPost noted that President Donald Trump has seen his overall approval ratings hit record lows before the midterms.
With voters angry over high prices and an unpopular war against Iran, Democrats now have a strong shot at winning both the House and the Senate.
