CNN data guru Harry Enten delivered some good news for President Donald Trump on Friday.
Enten broke down the results of the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Tuesday, that found Trump’s approval rating ticked up two percentage points since the poll was conducted late last month. The poll found that 44% of respondents said they approved of Trump’s job performance, while 52% say they disapproved.
Enten suggested on Friday morning that Trump’s presidency is not in the tank just yet, citing the results of the new poll.
“I think it’s time for a bit of a reality check, right? We were going into late April and 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 is rising from the dead like Methuselah,” Enten said.
“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. This is not the picture that I think a lot of people were thinking that we would be painting. In late April, I think a lot of people expected his approval rating to keep dropping. But, at least according to Reuters/Ipsos, it’s, in fact, rising,” Enten added.
To be clear, his approval rating still remains historically low when compared to other presidents at the beginning of their terms. According to Reuters, former President Joe Biden had a 55% approval rating at a similar point in his presidency.
However, Enten explained that Trump is doing better than he has “traditionally” been.
“So what we see is 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,” Enten said.
He said that despite the impact of tariffs, the president’s approval rating may have increased because fewer Americans anticipate a recession.
“The bottom line is it is the economy, the economy, the economy. If the chance of a recession is falling as the trade wars have kind of 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,” Enten added.
Another poll, sponsored by a conservative media outlet, showed improvement in Trump’s approval rating earlier this month. The Quantus Insights poll showed a virtual tie, with 48.2% of respondents saying they approve of Trump while 48.3% said they disapprove.
While the Quantus Insights poll showed a divided approval rating for Trump, other recent polls show that Trump’s approval rating remains underwater as he passed his 100-day mark in office late last month.
A recent Associated Press-NORC poll found that just 41% approved of how Trump was handling his job as president while 57% disapproved. According to The New York Times’ daily approval rating tracker, Trump’s approval rating average is 45% as of Friday while his disapproval rating is 51%.
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