CNN data analyst Harry Enten had some disastrous news for Democrats who have been proclaiming that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have been falling.
“Time for a reality check… I think some folks thought Trump’s approval rating would keep falling, but it’s rising,” he said on X.
“Ipsos has his net approval going from -8 pts to -1 pt with voters. Aggregate has him up higher than late April too & much higher than at this point in term 1,” Enten added in a post with a video clip containing his report on CNN.
“I think it’s time for a bit of a reality check, right? Donald Trump’s approval rating, his net approval, seemed to be falling. He seemed to be adios amigos. People were writing his political obituary,” he said during his appearance as he spoke to CNN anchor John Berman.
“He is rising from the dead. Look at this. Hello. Trump’s net approval rating among voters. This is the Reuters Ipsos polling,” the data analyst said.
“Look at this, in late April, he was eight points underwater. But look at where he was in the most recent poll among voters. He’s up seven points to a minus one point net favorability rating,” Enten said before Berman requested that he put it “in a larger perspective.”
“Yeah, okay. This is just one poll, right? But Let’s take a look across an aggregate of polls. What are we seeing here? I want to compare both to where Donald Trump is now versus where he was in late April, as well as where he was at this point in term number one,” the data analyst said.
“What you see is that minus six points, he is a little bit worse off than he is in the Ipsos/Reuters polling, but he is considerably better than he was in late April when he was nine points underwater. And more than that, look at this; he’s nearly 10 points better than he was back in May 16th of 2017 in his first term,” Enten continued.
“We see as Donald Trump is not just doing better than he was doing in late April of 2025. He’s doing considerably better than he was doing at this point in term number one, about 10 points better than he was doing at this point in term number one,” he added.
“In a vacuum, minus six isn’t good, but in Trumpian terms, against himself, it’s actually a pretty good position for him to be in politically compared to himself,” Berman responded.
“Exactly right. This is considerably higher than he has traditionally been,” Enten said before Berman wondered, “Why did it bottom out? Why might it be rising?”
“Okay, why? Well, take a look at the chance of a recession. It’s actually falling. The chance of a recession is falling. In late April, it was 60% according to J. P. Morgan. Look at where it is now. It’s less than 50%. How about Goldman Sachs? You see the same thing, 45%, now falling to 35%,” the data analyst said.
“The bottom line is it is the economy, the economy, the economy. As the chance of a recession has fallen, as the trade wars have collapsed a little bit, at least with China, Trump trying to make a deal, we do see that I do think that the voters are responding to this, and therefore, we’re seeing Trump’s approval rating going up,” he said.
“The tariffs were really hurting him, and he backed off. It may be helping him politically now,” Berman responded before Enten said, “Sometimes Donald Trump has some pretty good political instincts.”
