“Donald Trump Jr. continued to be the master of the self-own after he attempted to troll 538.com’s Nate Silver. It happened Sunday on Twitter after the president’s firstborn son came across a Nov. 10 exchange on the social platform between Silver and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. The two were discussing how the polls underestimated the support for Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election, leading some to wonder about their accuracy. Silver said people may need to accept that polls are an indicator of political trends, albeit one with uncertainties built into their findings. If polls are becoming less accurate—it’s not clear they are but leave that aside for a moment—people basically just need to accept that there’s more uncertainty. But instead what will happen is that people will just be more confident in their dubious narratives and hot takes.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 10, 2020 That didn’t ease Hayes’ mind. I think a measurement tool that’s simultaneously becoming more common and accessible and also less accurate is a pretty bad combination.— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 10, 2020 Silver than explained that, in truth, the polls were more accurate than conventional wisdom might suggest. There’s not actually much evidence that polls are becoming less accurate. They had perhaps their best year ever in 2018. 2016 and 2020 polling errors were slightly worse than average but within a fairly normal range.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 10, 2020 Five days late, Trump Jr. barreled into the conversation ready to defend his father against nuanced takes regarding algorithms and scientific models. He accused Silver of just trying to save his career as a pundit. We understand you’re trying to salvage a very lucrative career in polling punditry but it’s getting ridiculous. https://t.co/V6hXNyUNRk— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 15, 2020 Silver swatted away Trump Jr.’s trolling by pointing out the obvious truth about his Dad’s political future (or lack thereof). I’ll still have a job on January 21st, though.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2020 Others piled on the president’s son because … do you need a reason? A job your daddy didn’t give you.— George Conway (@gtconway3d) November 15, 2020 Jokes on you Nate, Junior has never had a job. Can’t lose what you never had. pic.twitter.com/zz6C7dyVHU— SportsPoliticsCoffee (@SPC_Harry) November 15, 2020 Trump Jr. hasn’t responded to Silver’s comeback, but he has a long history of posting tweets that backfire in his face, as well as spreading disinformation about the 2020 election.
