Trump: ‘My numbers go way up’ after tragedies

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/03/15 3:55 PM ET

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday suggested his popularity increases after tragedies, pointing to his rise in polls after last month’s Paris terrorist attacks.

Trump made the comment while pushing back on a GOP memo that scrutinizes his White House candidacy and defending his support for certain demographics, such as women, according to CNN.

{mosads}”I’m gonna get people jobs and I’m going to protect people. And that’s why whenever there’s a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country, we have weak, sad politicians,” the billionaire businessman told the network.

Trump stood at 24.8 percent support in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls on Nov. 13, the day of the deadly attacks in Paris.

He ticked upward in the weeks following the attacks, reaching 27.8 percent support on Nov. 28.

His comment follows a similar point made by a Twitter supporter, which the celebrity real estate tycoon shared earlier Thursday, that states: “His poll numbers jump every time instances like this occur.”

That remark came in the wake of a Wednesday mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 people dead and more than a dozen others wounded.

Investigators are looking into a possible connection with terrorism. Police said Thursday that authorities had found 12 pipe bomb-type devices and other materials at a home linked to the killings.

Tags Donald Trump