'He's exhausting the American public': Joe Scarborough blasts Trump for his 'stupid fights' on Twitter

Joe Scarborough predicted that President-elect Donald Trump's poll numbers would plummet further if he continued to be sucked into what the MSNBC host characterized as "stupid fights" on Twitter.

During Tuesday's episode of "Morning Joe," Scarborough said that Trump's historically low approval ratings were "self-inflicted" wounds due to his "reckless language" in recent battles with figures like Rep. John Lewis and in his criticism of NATO and the European Union.

"What goes up always comes down. The opposite is not true," Scarborough said of poll numbers, citing the sagging approval ratings of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

"When you get down in the 30s, sometimes it doesn't rise back up," the MSNBC host continued. "And I think he's doing a lot of things - he's exhausting the American public before the day he's sworn into power as president of the United States. And he's used a time that other presidents have used to see their poll numbers go up. He's had his drop pretty dramatically among independents."

A slew of new polls released on Tuesday showed that Trump is likely the lowest-rated incoming president in modern history.

Separate CNN/ORC and Washington Post/ABC surveys showed that 40% of Americans approved of how the president-elect handled the transition between his incoming administration and President Barack Obama's outgoing team.

During Tuesday's show, Scarborough asserted that while Trump's tweets could resonate on budget issues like military technology cost overruns, his aggressive confrontation of any criticism was causing many independent voters who supported his candidacy to turn against him.

"When you exhaust people every day, at some point they turn you off," Scarborough said. "I don't have to see a whole lot of polls. If this continues, he'll be down in the 30s in the next two to three weeks, no matter what he does. And then they'll listen to him a lot less."

Confronted on Tuesday with news of the low poll numbers, Trump dismissed the surveys.

Watch part of the episode, via MSNBC: