CNN data analyst Harry Enten said Friday that President Donald Trump just had his βworst 10 daysβ in the polls. βI would say this is probably the worst 10-day period for the president in the polls his entire second term,β Enten told John Berman on CNN.
Enten did not hide his surprise. βThe numbers are just atrocious!β he said, and then walked viewers through 5 recent polls that all landed firmly in negative territory.
Those polls ranged from a net approval of -14 in Marquette to -26 in AP NORC. Other surveys in the group put the president at -17 and -22. Taken together they showed the president well below water across the board.
That pattern matters because it was not random. Enten flagged two big trouble spots. The first was independents. He said Trumpβs standing with that group fell from -4 in January to -43 in November. βWhen youβre 43 points underwater with independents, you know youβre doing terribly,β Enten said.
The damage among independents is the kind of shift that can change control of Congress. Enten warned that if the numbers hold into next yearβs midterms, Republicans could lose the House and the Senate. βYou canβt win with this,β he said.
The second big issue was the economy, and specifically how voters view inflation. Enten pointed out a dramatic swing in the public mood on the cost of living. He said the president went from a plus three on inflation in January to a deep negative by November. βItβs the cost of living baby,β Enten said.
Enten kept his remarks plain. βYou go back to January, he was three points above water. This was the reason why voters gave him a second term. You look at now, 34 points underwater. My goodness, that is a 37-point move in the wrong direction.β Those numbers underline how quickly voter confidence can turn when pocketbooks get tight.
He also flagged other warning signs for Republicans. Enten has been tracking shifts in Latino voters and a growing Democratic edge among certain committed voters. He described the larger picture as one that should make GOP strategists worried.
Worse for the president, many of the polls Enten cited were collected before several high profile controversies. Recent reports say the president used a crude insult toward a reporter and made violent remarks about Democratic lawmakers. Those developments could push numbers even lower in the next round of surveys.
If Thursday and Fridayβs numbers hold, the basic political fact is simple. A once narrow lead on key issues has flipped, and for now the polls show the president deep underwater where voters decide.
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