[pmyteh]

No, it's extremely inconvenient that we can't straightforwardly compare public opinion in authoritarian countries with non-authoritarian ones. FWIW the consensus in political science is that the Trump white house has substantially increased levels of misinformation (though there has been a decent amount under previous administrations), and that his popularity is genuine and enduring, though balanced by a larger genuine and enduring unpopularity.

I didn't intend to recommend a book - the link is just a graph of Trump's approval polls over time - but I thank you for yours. I'm not a particularly big fan of 'official narratives', not least because I study issue frames and so many of them are self-serving.