Approximately 45 percent of American voters trust President Donald Trump to “tell the public the truth” over the press corps covering his administration, according to a Fox News poll released Friday evening.

After grappling with the “dishonest” media for their “biased” coverage of him all throughout the presidential campaign, Trump carried his intense distrust and dislike of much of the press with him into the White House.

“Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media. The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it.”

Roughly 45 percent of the poll’s 1,013 registered voters surveyed between Feb. 11 to Feb. 13 said they trust Trump’s administration more than reporters covering the president’s administration to “tell the public the truth.” Approximately 42 percent of voters sided with the reporters over the president, while 10 percent chose neither, two percent chose both, and one percent said they “don’t know.”

The Fox News poll found that eight percent of Democrats and 11 percent of those who identify as liberals actually trust the Trump administration more than the reporters covering it to relay the truth to them more accurately. Approximately 52 percent of independents and 34 percent of those who identify as moderates said they trusted the president’s administration more. Even seven percent of those who said they voted for former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton chose the Trump administration over reporters.

A majority of voters, however — 55 percent — still want the news media to “cover the president aggressively” rather than “give the president the benefit of the doubt.”

When the poll asked voters “if the press has been tougher or easier on President Trump” when compared with the news coverage former President Barack Obama received, 68 percent of respondents believed the press had been tougher on Trump than on his predecessor. Just 18 percent believed the press were “easier” on Trump and 12 percent said the press were equally as tough on both presidents. Some 42 percent of the Democrats polled, 74 percent of independents and 44 percent of self-described liberals admitted that the press seemed to be “tougher” on Trump than on Obama. Only 34 percent of Democrats perceived the media’s coverage to be “easier” on Trump.

The poll’s results were released as many in the mainstream media were still reeling from Trump’s lengthy press conference Thursday in which the president hammered the press for their “dishonest” coverage. Saying that large swaths of the media represent “special interests” and those “profiting” off a “very obviously broken system,” Trump said “the press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people.”

[lz_related_box id=”287847″]

“We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control,” Trump said Thursday. “I don’t mind bad stories. I can handle a bad story better than anybody as long as it’s true and, you know, over a course of time, I’ll make mistakes and you’ll write badly and I’m OK with that. But I’m not OK when it is fake.”

The president took to Twitter on Saturday to reaffirm the sentiments expressed in his Thursday press conference and refute the media’s claims that his White House is in shambles.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

“Don’t believe the main stream (fake news) media,” Trump tweeted. “The White House is running VERY WELL. I inherited a MESS and am in the process of fixing it.”

[lz_third_party align=center includes=”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832945737625387008″]