Enten: Trump in ‘worst position ever’ on Americans’ #1 issue

[0:00] What's happening inside Iran has very much to do with the current state of the United States economy [0:05] and inflation, which is what voters regularly tell us in all kinds of polling they would like [0:12] to see the president focused on, not necessarily the military conflict. With us now is CNN chief [0:18] data analyst Harry Enten. So what am I talking about there? When it comes to inflation, [0:23] which is something that every poll tells us that Americans care about, how is the president doing? [0:27] Yeah. Okay. Americans say inflation is the number one issue facing them right now. And to quote the [0:33] great happy Gilmore, according to them, the price is wrong when it comes to the president of the [0:37] United States. Just take a look at these net approval ratings. When it comes to inflation, [0:42] the president of the United States is hitting all time record lows in all of these polls and all of [0:46] them. NBC came out yesterday, 36 points underwater. CBS came out a few weeks ago, 38 points underwater. [0:52] Ipsos, Reuters, 43 points underwater. CNN came out earlier this month, 45 points underwater. And [0:58] taking the cake is UMass Amherst, 47 points underwater across all of these polls. Trump is in his worst [1:07] position ever on the issue that the American people say over and over and over again is their key [1:12] number one issue. Was it always thus? No, it wasn't this always thus, Mr. Berman. And this is what is [1:19] so amazing to me. I mean, these shifts that we're just seeing my goodness gracious voters on Trump [1:25] and inflation in the 2024 election. Remember, Trump got reelected to a second term and Joe Biden got [1:30] pushed to the curb in large part because Americans felt he couldn't handle inflation. Trump was more [1:34] trusted than Kamala Harris on inflation by seven points. Look at his net approval right now. You [1:39] average all those polls on the first side of your screen, 42 points underwater. That is a nearly 50 [1:44] point shift away from the president of the United States. A nearly 50 point shift. That's bad. What's [1:51] worse? Yeah, what's worse? You think this is bad, a nearly 50 point shift. How about a 70 point shift? [1:58] I'm laughing because you never see numbers like this. Look at this. Independence on Trump and inflation. [2:03] In the 2024 election versus Harris, Trump was favored by 10 points. Down he goes. Down he goes. He's down to 60 [2:11] points underwater on inflation. That is a 70 point shift and a little bit less than two years worth [2:18] of time. John Berman and I are big baseball fans. And I will tell you, I'm going to go to Trump's [2:24] home borough in Queens because to be honest, it's the only comparison I can think of. Donald Trump is [2:29] in worse shape on inflation right now than the New York Metropolitans are in the NLEs. That is how bad [2:35] and what? The Mets just lose their 11th straight game. At a certain point, you stopped counting because [2:39] there's so many. There's two things I just want to point out quickly here. The two words that matter [2:42] so much here are, you know, independence and inflation. These are two areas the president [2:47] did well on in the last election. He did well. He did well. This is what is happening here. [2:53] The strengths that Donald Trump once had with the electorate, the things that got him elected to a [2:58] second term, you can wave adios amigos goodbye to them. And why that's so important is even though [3:03] Trump isn't on the ballot come November, a lot of Republicans in Congress are on the ballot. [3:07] And if these numbers, so you can wave adios amigos, goodbye. See you later. Certainly [3:12] that House majority and maybe that Senate majority as well. Harold, thank you very much. Thank you. [3:18] We're joined now by Republican Congressman Marlon Sutzman of Indiana. Congressman, [3:22] we're grateful to you for being here with us on a Sunday night. Thank you so much. [3:26] We just heard from my colleague, Harry Enten. They're talking about that key issue of inflation. [3:31] We obviously have midterms coming up. Every Republican House member will be having to run [3:38] for reelection if they are choosing to do so. Are you concerned about where the president is [3:42] with voters on inflation? Good evening, Jessica. You know, yes, absolutely. It is a concern because [3:50] I think a lot of it comes from the gas pump. You know, we were getting used to that $2 range for gas [3:57] gas prices. And with a conflict in Iran, that's obviously pushed the gas prices up. And I think [4:03] a lot of that, you know, just hits all of us right back to where we were feeling the hurt before [4:07] after the years of inflation coming off the Biden administration. But I think, yes, I mean, [4:13] I was talking to a couple of folks today in my district that are in retail around tourism, [4:19] and they're actually having a good year. They said they're actually above where they were at last year. [4:23] And so I think there's a little bit of inconsistencies. It depends where you're at probably in the [4:29] country. But here in the Midwest, in Northeast Indiana, things are relatively stable. But [4:35] obviously, those numbers there are concerning. We want to be sure that we address those issues [4:40] because I still believe that the pocketbook issues really do drive the elections. [4:45] And so when you're talking to your constituents about that, when you're back in your district like [4:48] you are right now, what are you saying to them when they're asking you about those pocketbook [4:53] issues, when they're saying either I need these prices to keep coming down, what are you doing [4:58] to make sure things are more affordable? How do you explain that to them? [5:03] Yeah, you know, the biggest ones that kind of came in late off the inflation numbers were [5:07] insurance prices. We saw premiums go up over the past couple of years. And that was kind of like [5:12] the end of the tail coming off the inflationary period when it was really bad, 21, 22, and 23. [5:19] And so that's kind of like that thing that hit us over the head here at the end. [5:23] And of course, with gas prices back up. But you know, one of the things I tell them is [5:26] that what we passed in the big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cut Act, it really [5:31] is going to make a difference. We know one thing that the prices on food and gas, gas and energy [5:38] costs, utilities have gone up. But taxes are going to stay the same or go lower. On average, [5:44] Hoosiers should see almost a $3,000 net loss to their net decline in their taxes. So that's going [5:52] to help. But there's still a lot of work to do. I know here in our state in Indiana, [5:56] Governor Braun is addressing the utility costs that have really surprised all of us over the [6:01] winter. I know it was a hard winter, but it still seems like these big companies, [6:05] utilities, insurance, health care, their costs have gone up. And I, you know, as I tell [6:11] these insurance companies, they better do something or else the government and Congress, [6:15] they're going to address it. And it's not always going to be the easiest thing to handle. [6:18] Let me ask you about the consequences of this war, not just the loss of life, [6:23] the loss of innocent life, the loss of the lives of, you know, U.S. military members. [6:29] But the energy secretary said that Americans could be stuck paying more than $3 per gallon [6:34] of gas until next year. He had earlier predicted that that would sort of end this summer. [6:40] What does this mean to your constituents? Because he also said that they've managed this situation [6:45] fantastically. Is that how you see it? They've managed this situation fantastically. [6:52] They started a war that nobody wanted and didn't even figure out that Iran was going to close the [6:57] strait. I mean, they have not managed anything well whatsoever. And for the American consumer, [7:04] we just can't afford higher prices at the pump. I mean, no one around here is saying, [7:09] oh, I have the room in my budget to pay more on gas, to pay more on heating oil, you know, [7:15] to pay more for electricity. But that's where this is all headed. Prices are going up at a time when [7:21] Americans can't afford basic needs. We've already seen airlines go out of business. The oil shortages [7:29] that have hit Asia are likely to expand across the world because it's a fluid market. And so when [7:36] there are shortages in Asia, oil is going to get diverted from the United States and Europe [7:40] to meet those shortages. That means prices go up everywhere else. But there's another thing that [7:45] we don't talk about, which is that Congress, Trump has come to Congress to ask for $200 billion to pay [7:50] for this. That $200 billion, I mean, we throw billions of dollars around Washington all the time. [7:55] $200 doesn't sound like that much. Let's put this in concrete terms. For the average American taxpayer, [8:01] $200 billion is about $1,400. So if I go to anyone in the United States, whether you're a liberal [8:09] Democrat or a MAGA Republican, and I say, would you like to pay $1,400 out of your checkbook to pay [8:18] for a war in Iran? I don't think anyone's going to say that's a good idea. CNN's David Goldman is [8:25] joining me now. Okay. First of all, of course, Donald Trump is going to say he's totally wrong [8:29] because it's a terrible number. Nobody wants to see above $3 a gallon on average. And right now [8:34] we're at $4. Where are we headed? Yeah. I mean, everyone wants to know if right is right or right [8:38] is wrong. And I think that the big question is how long does this last, right? We've been talking [8:45] about this for weeks on end now. So if the path of gas prices continues, and we are seeing them drop [8:52] like a little feather and we're down about 10 cents from the peak, well, you know, we could see as [8:59] Scott Besant, the treasury secretary said in a prediction the other day, well, yeah, maybe we'll [9:06] see gas prices with a three in front of it in the summer. We could see it really, really soon. If that [9:12] is a three with a couple of zeros after it, Chris Wright is saying not till next year. President Trump [9:18] says sooner. I don't know. That is a bold prediction given everything that's going on. [9:24] It, I think right might be right in this debate here. I mean, look, we are all waiting to see what [9:30] happens, but clearly the markets are responding yet again. It's a yo-yo. Although I don't know if [9:36] this is surprising or not, but the markets have gained a lot. You know what I mean? As you're, [9:40] as they're going up and down, they still sort of ended up quite high at a time when we were in such [9:45] uncertainty. Yeah. I mean, the stock market is divorced from the reality of the situation right [9:51] now. I think it's pretty clear that if you want to look at what is actually going on, the oil market [9:56] is going to be a little bit of your better gauge here. Here's why. The oil market is trading a [10:03] commodity that people use. We make it into gasoline, things like that. And so it's actually selling at [10:08] a price that people are saying, I want to purchase this thing for. Stocks are doing something completely [10:15] divorced from that, right? What they're saying is, what traders are saying is that we're going to put [10:20] this Iran war to the side and what we're going to be more concerned about is earnings and what these [10:27] companies are producing. That's a very, very different situation from whether or not this war is going to [10:33] cause gas prices to go up or not. That is a very good way to talk about it because there's the stock [10:39] market and the companies that may not have anything to do with this. And then there's oil and we're looking [10:44] at it. I think the last time we talked on Friday, it was like eighties in the eighties per gallon or [10:50] per barrel. Now it's 90 something. That's right. So it's gone up dramatically.