Survey Says is a weekly series rounding up the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics.
Donald Trump has a new verbal tic. He throws it out indiscriminately online, whether he’s threatening unhoused people or whining about Bruce Springsteen or announcing U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump has posted some version of this onto his Truth Social account 91 times since winning last year’s presidential election. But the funny thing is, prior to the election, he almost never used the phrase online: just five times across both his Truth Social and X accounts, in more than 16 years of online life.
Daily Kos reviewed Roll Call’s database of all of Trump’s posts to Truth Social and X, formerly known as Twitter, where he began posting on May 4, 2009. Our count includes slight variants on the phrase (like “Thank you for your attention to this problem”) and spelling errors, such as when Trump threatened Apple with tariffs in May but wrote, “Thank your for your attention to this matter!” And it excludes his deleted posts as well as any time he has reposted his own thank-you, which has happened at least twice.
Trump’s first documented use of the phrase on his social media accounts came in August 2019, when he—gasp—announced higher tariffs on China during his first term. Between then and the election, he whipped out the thank-you just four more times, regarding topics as disparate as a federal abortion ban and his 2020 election denialism/football.
He then deployed the phrase three days after the 2024 election, in an attempt to steady the stock price of Truth Social, which had bounced around following his win.
However, it wasn’t until after he reassumed the White House that his thank-yous exploded. Three posts in February became five in both March and April, became 15 in May. He hit his monthly record in July, at 26 uses. But with 17 in August already, he’s on track to eclipse that.
One of the more curious times he used it was when he addressed a Wall Street Journal report about his birthday note to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper,” he posted on July 17. “Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”
But five days earlier, he was chastising people for … paying attention to the scandal … while also thanking them for paying attention.
“One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” he wrote. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
One of the oddest aspects of his new catchphrase is that since he is the president, whatever he says is, by default, news—and people are going to pay attention to it. Why is he suddenly thanking us for feeding him the attention he craves—attention that we sort of have to give to him since he is, again, the president?
Maybe he’s just trying to make his posts sound more like official press releases. Perhaps someone in his office persuaded him to be a tiny bit more gracious, to appear less like the bigoted, semi-sentient grandpa he is. Or maybe it had something to do with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Feb. 28, Trump and Vice President JD Vance met with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office to ostensibly discuss further military aid to the embattled nation. But the true purpose of the meeting quickly became clear: Trump thought Zelenskyy was ungrateful and wanted to humiliate him. Notably, Vance demanded to know if Zelenskyy had ever “said thank you once” to Trump. (Zelenskyy had thanked the U.S. many times for its assistance.)
In the week before that ambush, Trump issued three “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” posts, each about different topics—but that’s more than he had sent out in any one month prior to that.
In the month after the ambush, Trump posted five more thank-yous. And from there, his use of the phrase snowballed. It’s possible that Zelenskky’s pushback during the ambush made “thank you” stick in his head. Some of his posts afterward wield the phrase almost sarcastically.
Or maybe—probably—that’s just grasping at straws.
Whatever it is, Trump has given his critics a new motto to mock him with.
Any updates?
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Speaking of Republicans trying to gerrymander congressional maps, a new poll from YouGov finds that only 30% of Americans support Texas redrawing its map to further benefit Republicans. Support for Texas Democrats who left the state to stall the redraw is slightly underwater, with 36 approving of them leaving and 40% disapproving. But also underwater is state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to expel the Democrats from the state House. Thirty-six percent approve, while 44% disapprove.
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Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to a cushier prison after she met with Trump’s Justice Department, in what appears to be a quid pro quo for her silence. And it turns out the public ain’t a fan of that. Just 14% of Americans say she should’ve been moved to a minimum-security prison, according to YouGov. At the same time, only about one-third of Americans think Trump ordered the move, though the plurality (48%) aren’t sure whom they think ordered it.
Vibe check
With all the grim news out there, and to keep in the lighter spirit of this article, we want to tackle a less pressing but hotly debated topic: What’s the most polarizing food?
Per a fresh YouGov poll, eggs come out as the most beloved food, with 51% of Americans saying they “love” them. The most reviled is liver, with 40% saying they “hate” it.
The most polarizing, though, is sushi, according to the Daily Kos Food Polarization Index.™️(The methodology for this can be found in the chart’s footnote.) Sushi evokes the strongest but most balanced reactions from Americans, with 23% loving the food and 27% hating it.
What foods do you hate, love, or can’t understand how others love?
