After coming back into office with personal record-high approval ratings, Donald Trump’s standing is now “completely underwater” among independents. That’s according to an analysis of aggregating polling by CNN’s polling analyst, Harry Enten.
According to an aggregation of the current polls, Trump’s approval rating among independents is currently at -22, which breaks the record for the lowest such rating at this point in a presidency. The previous record-holder was Trump himself, in his first term in 2017, which was at -16.
“Independents feel that Donald Trump has vacated the center of the electorate catering to his base,” Enten said on CNN in a Tuesday segment. “He is completely underwater with the center of the electorate.”
It’s another indication that the ongoing tariff chaos is seriously hurting Trump’s standing.
Trump is “completely underwater” & has broken his own record with the lowest net approval at this point among independents (-22 pts).
His economic net approval with indies at this pt is so low (-29 pts) it has “no historical analogy”.
Most indies (66%) oppose the new tariffs pic.twitter.com/mBJm6e2HzJ
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) April 15, 2025
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Trump’s net approval on the economy specifically was +1 in January, per Enten. It is now -29, for a 30-point downward swing in about three months. It’s also a big change from the election and Trump’s opening weeks, when Enten delivered so much good news for Trump that it sometimes angered liberal viewers.
“What independents are hearing from Donald Trump, they hate,” Enten said. “And they are abandoning him in record numbers.”
Enten added that he could find no historical precedent for such a drop in that short a period.
“This right here, my dear friends, is political poison,” Enten said. “If an election were held today, and Donald Trump on the economy was -29 points with indpendents, I’m not quite sure how Republicans can hold on to the House of Representatives.”
He also found, according to the average, that 66 percent of independent voters are opposed to Trump on tariffs, with 57 percent of independent voters believing that Trump has “no clear plan.”
“When it comes to the economy, when it comes to overall, when it comes to tariffs, it’s a threesome for negativity for independents. They oppose, oppose, oppose,” Enten said.
The RealClearPolling average of Trump’s approval rating now has him at a spread of -3.4 net approval, despite some outlier polls – including the The Daily Mail, which lists him as +8 — coming in for him recently.
Photo courtesy of X screenshot.
