Americans have big feelings about Donald Trump.
The president’s approval ratings have plummeted to historic levels against the backdrop of his war with Iran and a crippling affordability crisis that has trashed his election promise that he’d make people better off.
Some polling has put his overall popularity as low as 32 percent. However, now CNN’s data guru Harry Enten has revealed that Americans don’t just feel tepid “like” or “dislike” towards the president: it’s strong, and it’s dislike.
“President Trump has the highest strongly disapproved rating going into a midterm election on record,” he said on News Central on Friday morning.
“Look at this: 50 percent of Americans now say that they strongly, strongly disapprove of the job that President Trump is doing. That is, they don’t just dislike him. There’s record hatred for the President of the United States going into a midterm.
“The previous record holder was Trump going into the 2018 midterm, but then he was only at 45 percent. Before that, it was George W. Bush going into the ’06 midterm at 41 percent.
“So right now what we’re seeing is President Trump with record hatred towards him going into this midterm election. No wonder Republicans, at least some of them, are running away from him.”
In the last few weeks, several GOP candidates have put clear daylight between themselves and the president. Several in battleground Senate and gubernatorial races have called for an end to Trump’s war in Iran. Meanwhile, Rep. María Elvira Salazar says his hardline immigration crackdown has damaged the trust of the Hispanic voters who helped put him in the white House two years ago.
Trump is known to be a fan of Enten, who he has stood up for even while trashing CNN. Enten didn’t pay it back Friday, though, when he revealed that the strong love Trump has enjoyed from his supporters is starting to fade.
“You know, President Trump has been historically polarizing, right? Yes, there are those people who really don’t like him, dare I say, hate him. But there have also been those people who really love him, right?
“And those two counteracting forces have sometimes worked to the president’s benefit, but not anymore. Why is that? Because take a look here. Okay. The strongly approved rating here… [people who] strongly approve of the president at this point in the midterm election.
“Just 18 percent strongly approve of the job that President Trump’s doing. That’s actually less than the average president going into a midterm at 27 percent. It’s less than Trump had going into the 2018 midterm at 27 percent.
“So Trump actually has fewer people loving him than what we see with the average president. So what’s going on here is normally Trump is able to counteract that strong hatred with strong love, but not anymore as that strongly approved number has actually dipped below what we normally see for a president going into a midterm election.”
Enten then looked at independent voters—a useful indicator when trying to work out which way the wind’s blowing—and again, it wasn’t good news for the 80-year-old.
“Independents on Trump with strong feels. 56 percent. 56 percent of independents strongly disapprove of Trump compared to just 9 percent who strongly approve. Among the group that determines elections in this country, you see the hatred for the president of the United States.”
