Big media is confused these days. Their go-to story about Trump-Russia collusion is a dead end. The House Intelligence Committee wrapped up their investigation finding, “No evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians."

Trump is hitting his stride, shedding his first year of advisors and cabinet members, adjusting his team as he settles into his job as President. Like a molting snake, shedding its first layer of skin as it grows a new and improved layer. The swamp is beginning to drain as evidenced by Andrew McCabe’s dismissal. More swamp drainage to follow, we hope.

This is not what the media expected. First of all, they did not expect Trump to win the election. Media polls were quite certain Hillary Clinton would be the next President, the only question being the size of the landslide. When Trump did win, the media began a nonstop blitz of negative news about the President, his administration, and his family

Russian collusion, affairs with porn stars, chaos in the White House, the President as an incompetent ignoramus. Nary a positive word with 91 percent of news coverage negative toward Trump.

Obviously, none of this is working. The media can always go back to their standard playbook and pick out a golden oldie – opinion polls. When the standard anti-Trump stories aren’t getting traction, the polls are how the media can tell the world that everyone hates Trump and wishes he wasn’t the President.

The latest poll is from NBC, specifically an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey. CNN provides their interpretation of the poll with this headline, “Trump approval rating improves slightly, but still underwater.”

The guts of the poll show that on March 18, Trump has a total approval rating of 43 percent and a total disapproval of 53 percent. True his rating improved slightly from the last poll of two months ago when he was at 39 percent total approve. And he is underwater by comparing the total approve and disapprove number. So, CNN’s interpretation is technically correct. But let’s look a little deeper at the poll internals, specifically who was polled.

When asked about party affiliation, respondents were classified as “strong”, “not very strong”, or “leaning toward” one party of the other. The numbers are interesting. 41 percent of those polled fall in the Democrat bucket while only 33 percent fall in the Republican camp. This difference of 8 percent in the party affiliation of those polled is quite close to the difference in the poll’s approval-disapproval difference of 10 percent.

What a surprise! Ask your Democrat friends and family if they approve or disapprove of President Trump and virtually all will disapprove. On the Republican side, most will approve, except for the NeverTrump crowd who would be ecstatic if it were a President Bush or Kasich implementing the Trump agenda, but hating the fact that instead it’s some loudmouth from Queens advancing the most conservative agenda since Reagan.

This is reminiscent of opinion polls during the presidential campaign. In mid 2016, I wrote about an ABC News poll gleefully proclaiming a 12 point lead for Clinton over Trump. This survey oversampled Democrats by 12 points, accounting for the poll result. The reality was a dead heat at that time.

This current poll is no different, inaccurately reflecting public sentiment, instead advancing the left-wing media agenda that Trump is unpopular, that Americans regret electing him. Wishful thinking on their part. That question won’t be answered until November 2020 when Americans will decide whether Trump gets another four years or takes the route of Andrew McCabe.

Another way to look at President Trump’s popularity is through Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Rasmussen has the distinction of being one of the most accurate predictors of the 2016 presidential election.

As of March 19, Trump’s total approve number is 47 percent, versus 52 percent disapprove. This is similar to what his numbers have been over the past weeks, hitting a high of 50 percent in late February, but overall hovering in the high 40s.

Big media doesn’t like to cite this poll as it doesn’t fit their narrative, that  everyone hates Donald Trump. It’s also interesting to see how the media’s messiah was viewed at a similar point in his presidency, the guy with the sharp crease in his slacks, none other than Barack Obama.

Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll was active during Obama’s years in the White House too, though the media seems unable to do a simple internet search and find these results. How popular was Obama on March 19, 2010, exactly 8 years ago, 14 months into his “fundamental transformation of America”?

Obama’s total approve number was 45 percent, and total disapprove at 55%. Two percent lower approval and 3 percent high disapproval than Donald Trump at a similar points in their presidencies. Obama also hit 50 percent on one particular day but otherwise hovered in the mid 40s.

A few points lower than Trump, but statistically the same. This despite Obama having a strong favorable media breeze in his sails, overwhelmingly positive, while Trump is sailing into a hurricane force headwind of over 90 percent negative coverage.

That’s the real story, that despite an unprecedented propaganda war against the current president by the media and the deep state, he is polling at least as well as Obama was at the same point in his presidency.

Don’t expect NBC, ABC, or CNN to ever report that angle, preferring to emphasize any negative aspect their polls, oversampling Democrats to reinforce their point.

Lastly, speaking of the deep state, 74 percent of respondents in a Monmouth poll, “Believe in a deep state when it is described as a collection of unelected officials running policy.” The same deep state, which included the media, fudging opinion polls to drive the narrative.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, MPS, a Denver based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.