CNN's Harry Enten warned that one of President Donald Trump's strengths with voters could quickly turn into a liability.
The analyst displayed polls showing that inflation was the top issue that voters wanted the president to focus on during his first 100 days in office, with 34 percent citing that as their top concern, and another 21 percent identifying the economy, in general, as their main worry.
"Let me be perfectly clear," Enten said. "Inflation crushed the Joe Biden presidency, it ate it alive. If Donald Trump is not careful, inflation will crush his presidency and eat it alive, because that is where Americans want him to be focused. They want him focused on fixing the inflation crisis, the inflation problem, and bringing prices down."
"Breaking news," added host Sara Sidner. "I'm going to do some math here. I just want to point out that inflation and the economy [add up to] 55 percent. I mean, that is basically everything."
"The whole kit and caboodle," Enten agreed, "and it doesn't matter what poll you look at, it is the economy stupid."
The problem for Trump is that most voters – including nearly half of Republicans – don't feel like he's been focused strongly enough on those issues, Enten said, and inflation data released Wednesday showed prices unexpectedly grew during the first month of his second term.
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"You know, there's a lot of things that folks have liked about Donald Trump's first few weeks in office, [but] inflation is not one of them," Enten said. "They believe that Donald Trump is not keeping his eyes on the prize. Is Trump focused enough on inflation? Not enough – 66 percent, that is, two-thirds of the country. Just a third of the country say he's focused the right amount. Get this: 48 percent of Republicans say he's not focused enough on the problem of inflation, and he absolutely should be, because it is numero uno in the voter's mindset."
The percentage of Americans who say the economy is excellent or good has dropped 5 points since November, after Trump promised to turn things around right away.
"There's perhaps this idea that Donald Trump could come into office and, to borrow my first name, be like Harry Houdini and wave a magic wand and make the economy all better again," Enten said. "You go back to November of 2020, right when Donald Trump lost re-election, it was 49 percent [who say the economy is excellent or good]. By this past election, it was 32 percent. Look at where we were in a recent Marquette University Law School poll – it was 27 percent. So, no, Donald Trump is not a magician, no president is a magician when it comes to the economy. But be very clear here: If this number does not go up, Donald Trump's approval ratings will go down."
"I started this segment by saying that inflation ate the Joe Biden presidency alive, it crushed it," Enten added. "If these numbers remain the same, inflation will do the exact same thing to Donald Trump's second term. It will eat it alive, it will crush it."
Watch the video below or at this link.