When American presidents are struggling with their public support, they have plenty of credible choices. They can say they’re focused on governing, not polls. They can say they expect to see a turnaround in the near future. They can say that the only polls that matter are election results. They can even argue that they care more about being right than being popular.

What they should not do is make stuff up.

And yet, there was Donald Trump on Tuesday, arguing by way of his social media platform that his approval rating has reached “an all-time high.” The next morning, at a White House event, the Republican echoed the line, claiming that his approval rating is now “the highest it’s ever been.”

It’s really not.

In the wake of FiveThirtyEight’s collapse, The New York Times created a relatively new feature that charts the president’s average approval rating, based on data from publicly available national surveys. As of this writing, Trump’s disapproval rating stands at 53% — tied for the worst of his second term — while his approval rating is 45%, near the lowest point since his second inaugural. At his independent site, Nate Silver’s averages are pointing in a similar direction.

To be sure, there’s ample room for discussion about whether the president’s support deserves to be higher or lower, or whether his standing is likely to improve or get worse in the coming days, weeks and months.

But simply as an objective matter, the idea that his approval rating has reached “an all-time high,” and is now “the highest it’s ever been,” is plainly and demonstrably wrong.

What’s more, it’s part of an unfortunate pattern. A couple of weeks into his current term, Trump said his approval rating was in the “high 70s,” which was silly. He soon after declared, “I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years,” which was the opposite of reality.

So why peddle claims that are easily disproven? It’s likely that ego has something to do with this, but there are also practical considerations to keep in mind.

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Trump finds himself at a difficult stage. His foreign policy agenda is floundering; his top legislative priority is unpopular and struggling to advance on Capitol Hill; his economic assurances have failed to come to fruition; many of his top priorities are failing in the courts; and millions of his constituents are participating in rallies to express their opposition to him and his agenda.

This doesn’t matter because of his own electoral prospects — Trump cannot legally seek another term — but it does matter to the extent that popular presidents wield more power, while flailing presidents wield less.

This is true on the international stage — foreign officials are more likely to take seriously leaders who enjoy meaningful domestic backing — but it’s also true on Capitol Hill. As we’ve discussed, members of Congress — who, unlike the incumbent president, have to worry about re-election — care a great deal about the prevailing political winds.

If the public really were rallying behind Trump and his approval rating really were “the highest it’s ever been,” Republican lawmakers might be that much more inclined to follow his lead, while Democratic lawmakers in competitive districts would be that much less inclined to put up a fight against the White House agenda.

But with Americans expressing their increasingly unambiguous dissatisfaction with Trump, it effectively creates a permission structure for Congress to defy the president’s wishes. In other words, the more voters turn against Trump, the harder it becomes for him to get his way — which helps explain why he’s lying so brazenly.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.