CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten delivered brutal news to Democrats on Monday, indicating that as the government shutdown extends into another week, recent polling indicates President Donald Trump is managing the political repercussions more effectively than previously.
Referencing recent data from an AP-NORC survey, Enten informed host John Berman that “shutdowns are distinct during the second occurrence concerning Donald Trump.”
Although the 2018–19 shutdown swiftly diminished Trump’s popularity, Enten observed that his current standing has remained stable, with a little improvement.
“That’s exactly right. It turns out shutdowns are different the second time around when it comes to Donald Trump. Take a look here. You know, we speak about Donald Trump shutdowns, net approval rate, we’re talking 20 days into it,” Enten said.
“In 2018/2019, Donald Trump’s net approval rate was already falling. The shutdown was eating into his popular support. It was down 3 points already at this particular point and would fall considerably more. It was very much on the decline. You come over to this side of the screen, this shutdown hasn’t eaten into Donald Trump’s support at all,” he continued.
“His net approval rating is actually up a 1, in terms of — in terms of his popular support. So the bottom line is this, the first shutdown during Trump’s first term, 2018/2019 was hurting Donald Trump. This one is not hurting him at all. There’s no real reason Donald Trump might say at least when it comes to popular support, I want to get out of this shutdown,” Enten added.
CNN host John Berman jumped in to ask, “What about the question of blame?”
“Yeah. OK. What about the question of blame? OK. You see here, you see Donald Trump’s net approval rating was down 2018-2019. You talk about 2025 his net approval rating is up,” Enten declared.
“It comes down to the blame game, a game I loved to play when I was younger. Blame Trump for the shutdown, a great deal in 2018/2019, 61 percent, more than 3 in 5 Americans blame Trump a great deal for that particular shutdown. You come over to this side of the screen, look at this. It’s a different world. It’s a different world. Forty eight percent of Americans blame Trump a great deal for this particular shutdown,” Enten said.
“So it’s more than 3 in 5 back in 2018/2019. It’s less than half, a drop of 13 points. Again, it’s no real wonder that Donald Trump at this point, looking at the shutdown says, ‘You know what? It’s not actually harming me politically,’ in large part because he’s getting less of the blame,” Enten continued.
Berman jumped back in and asked, “And Trump’s doing things differently during this shutdown?”
“Yes, exactly right. You know, we talk about Donald Trump and you say, OK, he wants to be a consequential influential president,” Enten said.
“Well, the legislative process is basically freezed up, you know, on Capitol Hill, you may say, well, then he can’t actually get legislation through. But that’s not how Trump is governing in this term. We’ve spoken about this over and over and over again,” he added.
“He’s using his pen. He’s using executive orders, Trump executive orders at this point of presidency in 2017, it was just 50. Look at this already 210 executive orders signed by Donald Trump during this presidency. That is the most in a year. You have to go all the way back since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to find a president who signed more executive orders in a year than Donald Trump has already signed this time around,” he declared.
Enten concluded, “And remember John Berman, we still have two months to go in this year. So it wouldn’t be surprising to me if he signs even more.”
