Hope Hicks is a longtime Trump aide who many don’t even know. Trump would call her “Hopey” once in a while and she did indeed give him false hopes. As many revealing situations from Mark Leibovich’s new book “Thank you for your Servitude,” have come to light, so does this one.

In June 2017, Trump turned back to Hope Hicks and asked for a number to back up his claims of “record-setting” approval ratings for a first-year president. In the heat of the moment, Hope Hicks sputtered out “70%.” Trump ran with it, but many questioned the reality of a 70% approval rating. On the Gallup tracker for that same exact day, Trump’s approval rating was just 36%, which is near a record-low number…

When asked where the poll came from, Hope Hicks stated it was from Republicans in Tennessee. Even then, it was also 15 percentage points lower than the Republican national average approval of Trump which at the time was 85%.

"Trump didn't seem to process this, only that his historic popularity had once again been affirmed by 'the data,'" Mark Leibovich said. He also mentioned asking Hope Hicks what was happening with the poll and she simply stated, "I mean, I had to give him something, right? Whatever."