‘Yuck’: CNN’s Harry Enten on New Poll Showing Trump Has Made Economy Worse

TAPPER: “Our money lead now. President Trump’s reliable ratings for his handling of the economy are taking a major hit. A brand new CNN poll shows that 59 percent of the American people now say President Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country, an 8 percent increase from just last month, and this is before the federal job cuts and impact of Trump tariffs kick in. CNN’s Harry Enten is at the Magic Wall to explain for us the reasons behind this and more. And Harry, President Trump usually rates really, really well on this. His latest approval rating on the economy is on par with the worst numbers that former President Biden saw during his presidency?”

ENTEN: “Oh, I mean, I think the statistical definition of what the numbers look like in our new CNN poll is yuck, or maybe eww. We can start off exactly where you were pointing out, right, in terms of the policies worsening the U.S. economy. In March, it was 51 percent. And now, look at this, up to 59 percent, he is going in the wrong direction, going in the wrong direction on this. And this speaks to the overall state of the economy, right, Jake? What are we talking about here? We’re talking about rate the U.S. economic conditions as poor. As you were mentioning, or at least hinting at, Donald Trump was elected to fix the economy, but yet, when it comes to rating the U.S. economic conditions as poor, a year ago when Joe Biden was president, it was 70 percent. You flip forward to now, it’s 71 percent. That’s within the margin of error. It’s actually a point worse. So what we’re seeing here is that Donald Trump is, in fact, not fixing what the American people put him in charge to fix as basically the same percentage of the American public rate the U.S. economy as poor. Disgusting is I think another way to put it.”

TAPPER: “What are Americans increasingly concerned about right now?”

ENTEN: “Yeah, OK, so you see these two numbers being the same, but it turns out their concerns on the economy are not exactly what they were. What are we talking about here? Well, let’s take a look here. Family’s top economic problem, say, a government policy is the top economic problem for their family. Look here. In June of 2024 it was 10 percent. In April of 2025, look at this, it’s 21 percent, more than double. Well, what government policy might have been instituted during the Trump presidency to make this percentage double? Well, maybe it was tariffs, maybe it was tariffs. And what do we see? Tariff policies. Trump is, of course making the argument that even if in the short-term the policies may in fact hurt the economy, maybe in the long-term they won’t. Well, Donald Trump is not winning this argument. What are we talking about? Trump’s tariff policies will hurt the economy. Well, in the short-term it’s 72 percent. But even in the long-term, even if it’s a lower percentage, you still get the majority, 53 percent. The bottom line is, in this particular poll, when it comes to Trump’s economic policies, I just don’t see any bright spots, Jake.”

TAPPER: “So, I can — I can anticipate President Trump when he gets polls that he doesn’t like, when he hears polls he doesn’t like, he attacks the polls. It’s not like they’re legitimate and he’s doing anything wrong or the American people are wrong. It’s that the polls, the pollsters are wrong. So, this is CNN’s poll. What do other polls show?”

ENTEN: “You know, I remember an interview that Brianna Keilar did with Michael Cohen back in 2016. He said, what numbers, what polls? And she said polls, all of them, and in this case it is polls, all of them. What are we talking about here? Trump’s net economic approval rating. Look at this, negatives, negatives across the board. CNN, 22 points underwater, CBS, 16 points underwater. Fox, 18 points underwater, The New York Times, 12 points underwater, and the ABC News/Washington Post poll, 22 points underwater. It doesn’t matter what poll you’re looking at. If it’s a scientific poll, it shows that Trump is way underwater on the economy and it is dragging his presidency down with him, Jake.”

TAPPER: “Well, who are you going to believe? You or your lying eyes? Harry Enten —“

ENTEN: “Well, there you go.”

TAPPER: “— thank you so much.”