Earlier this month, during an appearance on CNBC, Donald Trump cited some positive polling numbers that had been shared a few days earlier, and attributed them to CNN’s “Harry Emden.” The president had presumably been referring to Harry Enten, CNN’s polling guru, something Enten had some fun with in the days afterward.
Enten was back on CNN on Wednesday, with some less-good news for the president’s standing.
Enten began his segment by introducing an “abject disaster” for the president in the polling on his handling of inflation. The polling analyst noted that voters trusted him more than Kamala Harris by 9 points on that issue. However, Trump is now 25 points underwater on his handling of inflation.
The source for that number, on screen during the segment, was “Enten’s aggregate.” It’s an indication that Trump hasn’t succeeded in dealing with inflation- and that his tariff policies are making it worse.
Trump: win election mostly on inflation
Also Trump: lets cause a lot more inflation https://t.co/Zi09QW94JM
— Rev Cap (@rev_cap) August 13, 2025
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“Into the gutter we go, underwater we go,” Enten said, joking that Trump is “matching The Little Mermaid.”
Enten went on to note that the Democrats now have a +1 advantage when it comes to trust on the issue of inflation, erasing the +13 advantage the GOP had in the last midterms in 2022.
“This just looks totally different from where we were in 2022,” Enten added, stating that voter anger with Trump about inflation is being felt by Congressional Republicans.
Enten also said that inflation, just as it was in 2024, remains the top issue on the minds of voters. But the difference is, Trump is the incumbent now and the issue is hurting rather than helping him. The economy is the #2 issue, followed by Medicare/Social Security.
More: https://t.co/K7vCIXjOEp pic.twitter.com/LzBCiiXc1m
— RealClearPolling (@RCPolling) August 12, 2025
“If these numbers look… on the election day in 2026 like this, there’s no way on God’s green Earth that Republicans can hold on to the House of Representatives,” Enten said.
In the RealClearPolling average as of Wednesday, Trump has an approval rating of 45.9 percent, against a disapproval rating of 51.3 percent, a spread of 5.4. That’s better for Trump than his all-time second-term low of -7.1 on July 22, but it’s still very negative. Trump has not been in positive in the RCP average since March 12, just six weeks after he returned to office.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
