Enten unpacks Trump's latest record-breaking 'disaster'

[0:00] A brand new CNN poll finds that the president's approval on the economy has fallen to an all-time [0:06] career low for him of 31 percent. It has never been lower for President Trump. This only begins [0:15] to tell the story, though, of the president's problems on the economy. With us now, CNN chief [0:19] data analyst Harry Ettin. As I said, this just scratches the surface because there are some [0:24] other numbers here that are really staggering. This is no April Fool's joke. This is a disaster. [0:28] All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump. I mean, let's just talk about inflation, [0:33] which is the name of the game. Okay, highest disapprovals on inflation about this time in [0:38] a presidency. Whenever you have Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on the board and you're matching [0:43] them or slightly exceeding them when it comes to inflation, you know it's bad. Look at this, [0:47] 72 percent in our latest CNN poll say they disapprove of the president on inflation. [0:52] Joe Biden, an average of polls at this point in his presidency, 68 percent. And Jimmy Carter, [0:57] whose presidency, [0:58] just like Joe Biden's, was absolutely wrecked by inflation, was at 66 percent about at this [1:04] point in his presidency back in 1978. Donald Trump, even worse than they are. So you see it [1:11] here. And the one word is or phrase I might say is, oh, my goodness gracious, what a disaster. [1:17] Just what's so interesting here is inflation was way, way higher. Yes. So they just right now, [1:24] voters don't like what the president is doing on it, even if it isn't as high as it was at these [1:28] other times. What about gas prices? What about gas prices, which, of course, is part of this [1:32] inflation picture, only making this number climb ever higher. How about disapprove on gas prices? [1:37] OK, disapproval ratings on gas prices. Biden's worst number, his worst number in any poll I could [1:43] find was 72 percent disapprove of Joe Biden on gas prices. Donald Trump right now in our CNN poll, [1:49] 76 percent, 76 percent, three in four Americans disapprove of the way that Donald Trump is [1:58] on gas prices. And again, the gas prices were higher during Biden. But the increase has been [2:03] so dramatic under the last month under Donald Trump. We're talking about an increase of about [2:08] a dollar. It's the highest increase that we've seen since at least 1991 in terms of raw dollars. [2:13] No wonder this number is so high. He is beating or doing even worse than Joe Biden was on gas [2:19] prices, which, of course, was such a major issue. So talk about his disapproval on the economy. Put [2:25] it in historical perspective. OK, so you see the gas prices here. [2:28] Disaster. You see the inflation here. Disaster. How about the economy? You know, [2:33] you mentioned it was the worst in terms of the approval rating for Donald Trump in any poll [2:38] we've conducted. How about highest disapprovals on the economy about this point in term two? [2:42] Look at this. These are the worst. In our poll, 69 percent disapprove of Donald Trump on the [2:47] economy. For George W. Bush, it was 57 percent in terms of the average. Barack Obama, 56 percent. [2:53] Donald Trump is crushing him on a metric. You don't want to be crushing anybody on which is [2:57] disapproval ratings on the economy. [2:59] He's double digits worse. I was looking at some other polling data also above the 57 and 56 [3:03] percent. The worst of all time at this point in term number two. It's the economy dragging Trump [3:09] down, being, of course, accelerated by inflation being so bad. And of course, the gas prices just [3:15] adding up. It's like a pancake tower and you're just reaching the top. And this is not a tower [3:20] you want to climb. One of the things you deal with when you deal with economic sentiment is how [3:23] people feel things are going to be. So what are the prediction markets saying about where they [3:28] go? Yeah. Where do the where does the calcium prediction market say that we're going on [3:32] inflation chance? CPI year over year is above 4 percent in any month in 2026. 64 percent. That [3:39] would be the first time since 2023. So the inflation tower that we're going up, it seems [3:45] like there are more steps on a stairway. Certainly not to heaven. More like hell if you're the [3:49] president of the United States. I mean, the White House certainly doesn't want the predictions to [3:52] be right about this. That's clear. My excellent panel is back, including David Chalian, who, [3:58] in fact, is the chairman of the White House. And he's been doing his numbers better than anyone [4:03] else. David, the economy was an issue that pulled up Trump in the first term. Second term. Totally [4:09] different story. Yeah, totally pulled him up in the first term because he consistently rated better [4:14] on his management of the economy in term one than he did on his overall job performance. Like it was [4:19] a strong suit of his. This 31 percent approval on the economy, which is issue number one for voters [4:25] far and away, as you noted. [4:27] This is a real political problem for him and his party. As you know, we're in a situation where if you're [4:28] thinking about whether or not they can compete with his party, they can do that. There's going to be [4:32] a lot of voters, sometimes, you know, who are on the ballot this year to try to maintain their [4:39] majorities in Congress. Not only is it his lowest across both terms, but you're seeing erosion among [4:43] his partisans. So the 71% of Republicans approve of his job on the economy right now. Obviously, [4:49] that means mostly his party is still with him, but then that 71% is down from 85% approval among [4:54] Republicans just in January on this issue. [4:57] So you're seeing slippage in his own house. That's a real blow to Donald Trump's campaign. And it's a [4:58] real concern for the White House. That's exactly what I took away from this. And I think, you know, [5:02] I've been out on the road a lot. I was out in the fall when he was in Pennsylvania, actually going [5:06] to give a speech specifically on the economy and the issue of affordability, which they recognized [5:12] months ago has been a liability for the president. And a lot of the Trump supporters that I spoke [5:18] with said that they were willing to be patient, but to a point. And I think this war, you know, [5:23] a lot of them voted for him because they thought that he would be focused on domestic issues, [5:27] focused on what's going on here in America. And I think this war has really [5:30] started to erode the support and the patience that many of those Trump supporters have had. [5:37] Yeah. And to that point, just to dive a little bit deeper into the numbers, [5:41] Trump policies, their impact on the economy, 65 percent of the American public say they have [5:47] worsened. Trump policies have worsened the economy. That is obviously not a good sign [5:52] for the president and his party. And to the point about the Republican slippage among Republicans, [5:57] about this approval of the economy among everybody, it was down from eight points from [6:01] January until now. Republicans, 85 percent supported his handling of the economy back [6:08] in January, just now 71 percent. That is so significant. And I think, you know, there is a [6:15] direct line between Trump's decision to help bomb Iran and gas prices being $4 a gallon. And so in [6:27] particular, I think it's important that people are sitting at home and saying he made a decision [6:30] that is costing me more money. And it's to me, it's like the most stark example. And it goes back to [6:38] what we've been saying is that he promised one thing. People trusted him, particularly those [6:43] MAGA Republicans trusted him, elected him despite all the other problems that they had possibly [6:49] with his brand or with the way he governs. They said, but the economy is important. So we're [6:54] going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another [6:55] chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they [6:57] said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're [6:57] going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another [6:57] chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they [6:57] said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're [6:57] going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another [6:57] chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they [6:57] said was, you know, we're going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're [6:57] going to give him another chance. And what they said was, you know, we're going to give him another [6:57] time and time again, is it appears he's distracted with foreign wars, with the Nobel Peace Prize, [7:05] with the Kennedy Center, with the ballroom, with birthright citizenship, all of these things. [7:10] They see the president prioritizing that to them is taking away from his promise to help them [7:16] afford groceries and goods and make prices. Which is why he's focusing on other things [7:21] in the midterms, because if you look at if you're a Republican running for reelection [7:25] and you think about whether to run with the president, you look at his standing [7:29] right now compared to other past presidents, he's just at 35 percent now. That is the lowest [7:34] of any other president really in modern history. All the way up Bush in 2002 at 79 percent. [7:41] He's even worse at this point in their term. And now he's focusing on other things, David, [7:47] like going after mail-in voting, putting out this executive order last night saying that [7:53] the Department of Homeland Security would create lists [7:55] of people who would be able to run with the president. [7:55] Of approved voters for each state, the USPS will only send ballots to people on federal lists. [8:01] The federal government will track all mail ballots through barcode. The federal government [8:05] will withhold funds for states that don't comply. The states are supposed to be running [8:09] elections in this country. Yeah, and it's why you saw a lot of governors from blue states. [8:14] Specifically today, I saw Maura Healey from Massachusetts, Mikey Sherrill from New Jersey, [8:19] putting out statements basically saying this is our domain and this is not going to have [8:24] any legal standing. [8:25] But as Elena knows from covering the president, this is a hobby horse of his. He is very adamant [8:31] about pursuing this destruction of mail-in voting. Absolutely. Even though he, we should know, [8:37] voted by mail last week in a Florida election. Look, part of this, too, and just to your point [8:42] earlier of all the different things, you as well, Tia, of all the different things he is doing, [8:46] other than some of, you know, focusing on the economy or the domestic issues that many of his [8:49] supporters and allies are telling him to focus more on. So much of this is he is now in the White House [8:55] able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. [8:55] He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. He's able to vote. These are things he's been [8:57] wanting to do for so long, and he sees this as his opportunity. And I will say, when we talk about [9:01] the midterms, even from early on in Trump's second term, you know, early last year when I was [9:07] talking to White House officials, they were saying they knew they were trying to get as much done, [9:12] as many of these priorities that the president had done as quickly as possible before the midterm [9:17] elections, knowing, you know, an incumbent president or a president who's in office, [9:22] normally it's the opposite party that ends up doing better. [9:24] In the midterms. And so that's also been part of what he's been focused on this entire time. [9:29] Yeah, I think, you know, and you started off by talking about members of Congress, [9:33] people who are going to be on the ballot. And here's what we know. As bad as Trump's, [9:38] you know, the polling is showing, as even in the MAGA Republicans, the split, [9:45] we know he is a game changer for many Republicans on the ballot in the primary. [9:50] And that's the tough position they're in. They need him [9:53] in a climate where he's going to be on the ballot. And that's the tough position they're in. [9:54] They need him in a climate where he's going to be on the ballot. And that's the tough position they're in. [9:54] And that's the tough position they're in. They need him in a crowded primary a lot of times. [9:57] But if you're in a state like Georgia or in, you know, most states, [10:02] it could be a problem in the general election. So what do you do? Because you can't reject him [10:07] outright because you don't want him endorsing the other guy. [10:10] But past presidents would be like, they'd be OK with you if you needed to do that to survive. [10:14] Not Donald Trump, who demands loyalty. [10:15] And Suze Weill said Donald Trump will be on the ballot this year. They want him. [10:19] And Mike Johnson told me he'll be a boon for Republicans come November. So we'll see who's right.