Eleven months ago, the Des Moines Register published the results of a statewide poll showing Donald Trump well ahead in the Republican Party presidential caucuses. At the time, the former president described the investigation as “a big, beautiful poll” and praised pollster J. Ann Selzer.

The paper, the Republican Party candidate said, has “a great pollster — in fact, a very, very powerful, very good, talented pollster.”

It was before the Monks register published the results from its latest statewide poll.

“It’s hard for anyone to say they saw this coming,” Selzer said.

It’s true. Trump won Iowa with relative ease in the last two election cycles; the Hawkeye State has drifted toward deeper shades of red in recent years; and as recently as June, when President Joe Biden was still seeking a second term, the same pollster found the former president ahead by 18 points.

And yet, the latest results give Harris a three-point advantage. (Click on the link for more information on the survey methodology and margin of error.)

Is the survey an exception? It’s entirely possible, and given that Democrats haven’t flooded Iowa with ads and appearances in recent weeks, it’s a safe bet that the Harris campaign’s internal polling isn’t as favorable than the results of Register/Mediacom.

If pressed, I could probably offer some sort of rationalization to help justify the findings—an unpopular Republican-imposed abortion ban recently took effect in the state, for example—but all things considered, so be it. Selzer’s numbers are an outlier, either the Democratic vice president is poised to take full advantage of Election Day.

But the Republican candidate’s reaction to the data was just as interesting as the data.

Shortly after the newspaper published the poll results, Trump published an article on its social media platform, condemning the data as “heavily skewed…by a Trump hater.”

Remember, less than a year ago, the former president was celebrating Selzer as a “great,” “very good” and “talented” pollster. Today, however, the public is expected to view her as nothing more than a “Trump hater.”

Hours after posting the article online, the Republican candidate spoke at a rally, and in reference to the release of polling data he didn’t like, he added: “This s calls for repression. They delete. And it should actually be illegal.