CNN data analyst Harry Enten on Wednesday addressed President Donald Trump's numbers on the economy, inflation and affordability as a whole, and noted his historically bad polling when compared with former presidents, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter.
"These are the ugliest numbers I have ever seen on inflation. And it's not just one poll, Johnny Berman. It's many polls. Just take a look here. The President's net approval on inflation. The five worst polls ever for any president. They all belong to Donald John Trump. And they have all occurred in the last month. The CNN poll, one of them, 48 points below water on the net approval rating," said Enten, speaking to CNN co-host John Berman.
"So what we're talking about here is the worst numbers ever in multiple polls now belong to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. It is a record, simply put, you do not want to have," he added.
The poll numbers are so bad because they blame Trump for all of the economic issues. Trump campaigned in 2024, promising that it would take him a year or less to fix major economic problems like the high cost of groceries, fuel and utilities.
"Just look at this and compare it to term number one, say, Trump's effect on the cost of living now that he has increased it in their communities. We're talking 77 percent of Americans say that Donald Trump has, in fact, increased the cost of living in their community. Promises made by Donald Trump in the minds of the American people are not promises kept by Donald Trump," Enten said.
The numbers are nearly double those from 2024, when Americans were asked whether Trump hurt their cost of living during his first term.
Berman noted that one major problem is that for his first year, Trump was denying that there was an affordability crisis, calling it a "Democrat hoax." In January, only 44 percent of Americans were worried about the economy and the cost of living. Today, that number is 55 percent. It's coming from equal parts Democratic and Republican voters, Enten said.
"If Donald Trump can't wrap his head around it, well, in their minds, the American people's minds, he is making the dopiest decision of all time," said Enten.
As the president lands in China on Wednesday, Enten said that even Trump's numbers on China-related matters have faltered. During term one his net approval was 9 points higher. As of today, he's fallen 15 points. The two groups fueling it are independents who are down 42 points from Trump's net approval on China. He's also seen some slippage with non-college white voters. They were over 34 points in term one, but in term two, they're down three points.
Enten also looked at the U.S.'s approval rating, which is down 15 points in Trump's second term when it was up 11 points in 2021 after Biden took over.


