Trump hits new low in economy poll

[0:00] CNN polling shows President Trump's approval rating on the economy has hit a new low, [0:04] just 31 percent approving of the president's handling of the economy, the top issue [0:09] among Americans. His overall approval is a point above his all-time low in CNN polling, [0:16] holding steady at 35 percent. All of this comes, of course, ahead of his address to the nation [0:21] tonight. CNN Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian here to make sense of it all. Give us some sense [0:26] of how big of a change this is. But it is a new low. Well, as you noted, if the economy is the [0:33] top issue for Americans, and used to be a strong suit of Donald Trump's, and he has hit a record [0:38] low on that, that becomes a problem. You noted his overall approval in our poll, 35 percent. [0:44] Just look over time, Sarah. You say the change. There hasn't been much change since last October. [0:50] He has been consistently at this low point for quite some time now. That's what's giving [0:55] a Republican... [0:56] Republicans on Capitol Hill who are up for re-election this year, a little bit of heart [0:59] palpitation. If you look at his approval by party, you also see that his biggest drop is among [1:05] Republicans. So we are seeing some slippage among the president's own partisans. He's now at 80 [1:10] percent approval among Republicans. In January, that was 87 percent. He's down at 26 percent [1:16] approval with independents, Sarah, a key part of the electorate that also will give a lot of worry [1:22] to Republicans on Capitol Hill. [1:24] Look, now the economy is the biggest problem. [1:26] The economy is the biggest concern of Americans, and when he was elected, it was the biggest concern [1:30] of Americans. It is the reason, in major part, why he got elected, because he said he could fix it [1:36] fast. Can you give us some sense, delve into some of the numbers that you're seeing on the economy [1:41] here in this poll? [1:44] Yeah. Take a look here about his overall handling of the economy. As you noted, 31 percent approval. [1:50] That is a record low for Donald Trump. You can see here, over time, his handling of the economy. [1:57] By the way, among Republicans, is at 71 percent. Just in January, he had 85 percent approval on the economy with Republicans. [2:05] So we're seeing slippage there as well on the economy factor, and largely driven by really pessimistic assessment from the American people. [2:14] 77 percent say economic conditions in the country are poor. Only 23 percent say they're good. [2:20] And a lot of that right now, we know, $4 a gas. This is not going to help his political predicament. Only 24 percent of Americans are [2:27] going to approve how Donald Trump is handling gas prices. Three-quarters of Americans disapprove how he's doing that. [2:34] If you look by party, again, among his own Republicans, it's just a bare majority. 56 percent only approve how the president's handling gas prices. [2:42] Yeah. And independents, that is an abysmal number. They're 16 percent. Let me ask you about foreign policy, because the gas prices and foreign policy actually go together right now. [2:53] Yeah. They do, no doubt, because of the war in Iran. And we'll hear the president address this. [2:59] Tonight, no doubt, 36 percent approval on how he's handling foreign affairs. So, again, right in line with his overall approval, which is abysmally low. [3:09] 36 percent approval, 64 percent disapproval. And, again, when you break it out by party, you see the slippage among Republicans. [3:18] In January, it was 84 percent approval among Republicans on Trump's handling of foreign affairs. That's down 10 points now. [3:25] Clearly, the Iran war is not sitting well with the American people. [3:27] Yeah. [3:28] Yeah. [3:29] It's not sitting well with the American people across the party spectrum. [3:32] All interesting numbers, David Chalian. Thank you so much for breaking them down for us this morning. [3:36] So, when asked to name the most important issue here in this latest CNN polling, I want to just read what one Republican respondent told CNN in terms of this poll, saying, quote, prices. [3:46] Everything is so expensive, it makes it very difficult to do anything other than work and go home. [3:51] Trips to the grocery store are ridiculous. Between gas and grocery prices, we are poor. [3:57] Sungmin, how does the Trump administration see this? [3:58] How does the Trump administration, in terms of handling this, the talking points that we saw during the Biden administration of, hey, you should feel great, things are great, clearly that doesn't work, right? [4:08] It's about how people are feeling. [4:10] How much recognition is there behind closed doors within the White House about just how damaging this could be? [4:16] Well, the problem for or the challenge for this White House was that affordability was a major issue even before the war in Iran began. [4:23] Obviously, the voters were going to the grocery store still not satisfied with how much they had to pay. [4:27] They were looking at housing costs and these other issues. [4:30] And now the fact that gas prices are so on the so on the front radar with the Middle East conflict is a major problem for the for the for the Trump administration. [4:39] This was this was a similar thing that went to the Biden administration. [4:42] You know, White House staff is very aware that gas prices, what they cost, it's just like sticker prices all over, all over wherever you go. [4:50] It is a reminder to voters just how much prices are going up because gas price gas is one of the few. [4:56] Few items that you buy where you can just see the prices go up everywhere you go. [5:01] The White House chief of staff is very aware of this. [5:03] Staff behind the scenes is also very aware, which is why you have Trump kind of being optimistic about how quickly this conflict will end and giving the giving the continuous timelines that he is. [5:15] But obviously, you know, when you're in a broader conflict, you know, the U.S. is not the only actor here. [5:21] It's a lot more complicated. [5:23] Obviously, you've seen the administration take smaller measures. [5:25] Right. [5:26] You've seen the administration take smaller measures, such as dealing with the strategic strategic petroleum reserve and to deal with the gas issues. [5:32] But this is certainly a major challenge, a major political problem and a liability for them, for the Trump administration. [5:38] Yeah, it certainly is. [5:39] And when we look at other potential liabilities, there are questions about foreign policy. [5:42] Right. So I want to play a little bit of what Secretary Hegseth had to say yesterday. [5:45] He was asked specifically about the support of the base as we're as we're watching what is unfolding in Iran. [5:50] Take a listen. [5:51] I don't understand why the base, which they have already, they understand wouldn't have faith in his abilities. [5:56] They don't have faith in his ability to execute on this. [5:58] Look at his track record of pursuing peace through strength. [6:02] America first outcomes. [6:04] So the president has actually lost when it comes to foreign policy a little bit among Republicans. [6:10] How concerning is it that this could if the war continues to drag on, this could further erode support for the president? [6:17] Well, Eric, I think that's exactly right. [6:19] I talked to a lot of GOP operatives and they're very concerned about the longer this war drags on. [6:25] The more support. [6:26] President Trump is going to lose. [6:29] If you dig into the this recent poll from CNN, you'll find that he's dropping mostly with Republicans and with younger Republicans. [6:38] And I think that that's largely due to the fact that our economy doesn't work for young people anymore. [6:42] And it's not President Trump's fault. [6:44] He's trying to play catch up. [6:45] This has been a problem that's been happening since thousand the late 2000 since the financial collapse. [6:50] Right. But he has to own it now. [6:52] Right. He's been there. [6:53] He's been there for a year. Right. [6:54] And look, I think there's a huge opportunity. [6:56] For for either party, the first party to make an economy that works for young people so that they can afford homes off of one income again so that they can start getting married and having children. [7:06] You know, if you build a pro family economy, we're talking like a New Deal era dynasty of political power. [7:13] The first party that does that. [7:14] And I think that the sad thing for the American people is they're seeing this in that poll. [7:18] If you dig even further, you'll see that the American people are kind of giving up on the economy. [7:22] They're losing hope. [7:23] And it's not 74 percent. [7:25] Three quarters of them say that they don't think the Democrats have the right party. [7:28] The American people deserve better and they deserve bold leadership. [7:31] And I think President Trump is doing all the right things. [7:34] He's trying to get things done. [7:35] I don't think that the political party that's going to seize this opportunity is going to let something like the filibuster get in their way. [7:41] We've seen that the Democrats do this all the time. [7:43] They get rid of the filibuster or they skirt the rules and push through their institutions like Obamacare. [7:48] It works for them. [7:49] And I think Republicans seem to get more comfortable with political power. [7:52] Interesting to see what they do with that. [7:55] Also, the American people not really fond of those efforts in general and frankly not fond of Congress these days, let's be honest, across the board. [8:02] If we continue to talk about the war in Iran, I think something else that has been fascinating to watch, Sabrina, is the shifting message, right? [8:09] So the president sort of rewriting, I guess, the language or what regime change actually means yesterday. [8:15] Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also talking yesterday about objectives and something in that stood out that I want to ask you about. [8:21] Take a listen to what he had to say. [8:24] We are well on our way. [8:25] We are on or ahead of schedule. [8:26] On each of those four objectives and we can see the finish line. [8:29] It's not today. [8:30] It's not tomorrow. [8:31] But it is coming. [8:32] We are going to get to the point where our military will have achieved all of its objectives in this mission and they're doing so with extraordinary efficiency. [8:40] So he's talking about all of these objectives. [8:43] We're going to put up again the post from the secretary and from the State Department on X. [8:47] So what's different here and the reason we're comparing them is on March 4th, he mentions nukes but not the Air Force. [8:54] Monday, he mentions the Air Force but not nukes. [8:56] So you're the former deputy press secretary at the Pentagon. [9:00] How important is it to keep the narrative straight in terms of the impact on the mission? [9:06] The messaging and the mission really do go hand in hand. [9:09] Well, one of the things that also wasn't mentioned that they set out at the beginning of the war was dismantling Iran's support to its proxy groups in the region. [9:16] And that's something that we haven't heard mentioned, I think, from the very early days until, you know, we haven't heard that recently mentioned. [9:22] So in terms of the messaging, I mean, it's very important for the military to have clarity. [9:25] It's important for the military to have clear objectives, but also for the American people. [9:28] And they do go hand in hand. [9:30] Standing behind that podium before, it's really important that the message and the mission align. [9:36] And when you don't have that clear message and mission laid out for the military, it can make tactical successes great. [9:43] Like you've seen our military strike over 11,000 targets. [9:47] But that does not mean that it's going to lead ultimately to maybe the end goal that they wanted, which was a regime change. [9:53] I mean, the regime is still very much intact. [9:55] The leadership has changed, but the regime remains. [9:58] And so you're seeing tactical successes, but potentially strategic failures. [10:02] And so, you know, they continue to push out different messengers from this administration. [10:07] I think the reality is that the messaging war has been lost. [10:10] They have lost the narrative here. [10:12] And so you're seeing shifting goalposts. [10:14] So tonight the president might come out and declare a victory. [10:17] The reality is gas prices are still up. [10:19] They're not going to go down for probably many, many months. [10:22] The Strait is still closed. [10:23] And on top of that, you have. [10:25] Massive damage done to the region, including to liquefied natural gas facilities that it's going to take years to repair. [10:32] So we're not going to see those costs go down for a very long time.