Poll: 36 percent say media is too tough on Trump

More than a third of Americans nationwide say the media has been too tough on President Donald Trump.

A nationwide Gallup poll found that 36 percent of respondents across 50 states think media outlets have been too hard on Trump, while 28 percent say they haven’t been hard enough.

Significantly more people believe Trump is being treated badly by the media than thought the same was true for former President Barrack Obama.

Trump has clashed fiercely with the press during his first two weeks in office.

{mosads}His administration was embroiled the weekend after his inauguration in a fight with the press over the size of the crowd at the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Fox News’s Chris Wallace said Trump was “flat wrong” in claiming that the media intentionally underreported the crowd size on the National Mall compared to Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

Trump has punched back at The New York Times after it flatly dismissed his claim that 3 million to 5 million illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton giving her the popular vote.

“The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!” he tweeted on Jan. 28.

Only 11 percent of respondents thought news programs and publications were too tough on Obama during his first few weeks in office in 2009.

Complaints about coverage of Trump skew heavily along party lines.

Seventy-four percent of Republicans think the media has been too harsh with Trump, while 49 percent of Democrats say it hasn’t been tough enough.

Only six percent of Republicans think the media should do more to hold the new administration accountable, while only 9 percent of Democrats think it should go easier on Trump.

Thirty-seven percent of independents think the media is being too rough with Trump, reflecting the sentiments of the survey group as a whole. Thirty-one percent say the coverage is about right and 26 percent say Trump deserves more critical scrutiny.