The Republican Party "should be scared" by Donald Trump's polling numbers ahead of the midterm elections, a data expert has claimed.
CNN's Harry Enten warned the GOP should be worried by current figures which suggest Trump is more like "the Titanic" than a strength for candidates heading into the midterms. Explaining the net approval decline from October 2024 to now, Enten suggested there is a "ginormous error" at play that will affect the Republican Party. Though Trump is unable to run for a third term, those who are hoping to hold onto their seat in the midterms may struggle because of Trump's dismal approval rating.
Enten said, "Donald Trump might be trying to downplay voters’ concerns about affordability, but I’m here to tell you that is a ginormous error. It may be an error that goes down in political infamy. The reason Donald Trump was elected was to fix the problem of inflation. Right back in October of 2024, who was more trusted on inflation?
"It was Donald Trump by 9 points over Kamala Harris. But look at where we are today—Donald Trump is underwater with the Titanic when it comes to inflation. His net approval rating is 26 points underwater. My goodness gracious." These figures may have Republican candidates "scared s---less" ahead of next year's midterms, he said.
Enten added, "Now we’re talking about Trump. He, of course, at least constitutionally, can’t run for another term. But his Republican Party is up in the midterm elections. They should be scared s-h-blank-blank-less."
Trump's woeful economic policies could be cause for concern as candidates scramble to make sense of proposals which are "doomed to fail" according to a top economist. Speaking to Politico, Mariana Mazzucato suggested the "hodgepodge" of policies has little in the way of solutions to the cost-of-living crisis.
She said, "The problem is, if you reshore manufacturing, is manufacturing in the U.S. going to continue to be on the technological frontier? Or will it simply be in the U.S.? So, for a little bit of time, it will be employing U.S. workers because it will be in the U.S.
"But they are just doomed to ultimately fail because they are not going to be growing, dynamic industries that are benefiting from what I have always argued is required to allow industry to benefit, which is an active, smart industrial strategy."