'A headache for Trump': Data expert says 'least-liked' Cabinet pick is hurting President
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth's scandals are becoming a "problem" for president Donald Trump, according to new polling presented by CNN's Harry Enten.
The former Fox News host has been embroiled in an ongoing scandal over his non-secure communications about military operations, and he has already reshuffled top leadership posts just weeks into the job, and Enten told "CNN News Central" that poll numbers show the public has turned against him.
"Look, Pete Hegseth is a problem for Donald Trump, and the way we can see this pretty clearly is, you know, you sort of set the baseline level that you would expect in terms of popularity in the Trump administration," Enten said. "That's Trump himself, he's at minus-five points on net favorability – not so hot, but not terrible. Look at where Pete Hegseth is: way underwater, at minus-14 percentage points, nearly 10 points below where Donald Trump is. If Trump is par, Pete Hegseth is way, way, way off the reservation at this particular point."
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"So much more unpopular than you would expect of the average Cabinet member, and indeed Pete Hegseth, at this particular point, is the least-liked Cabinet member in Donald Trump's administration," Enten added. "In fact, he is the least-liked secretary of defense. You have to go all the way back to Donald Rumsfeld, back at the end of the Bush administration, to find a secretary of defense who is less liked than Pete Hegseth is currently."
More than three-quarters of those polled – 76 percent– believe Hegseth was wrong to discuss military operations on the Signal app, and a majority of Republicans agreed, at 56 percent.
"This, I think, sort of gives the game away using Signal to discuss military plans is not appropriate," Enten said. "You rarely find three-quarters of Americans agreeing on anything, but they agree on this, that using Signal to discuss military plans is a big no-no. How about among Republicans? Even there, even there you get a majority of Republicans agreeing that using Signal to discuss military plans is not appropriate."
"The bottom line is that Pete Hegseth is a headache for Donald Trump, a headache that personally, I don't think he needs because Donald Trump is not involved in this, and yet he's getting brought up because it's a member of his administration," Enten added. "He has a headache, and he is potentially dragging Donald Trump down."
The odds of Hegseth being pushed out before July have surged from 7 percent on Monday to 30 percent on Wednesday, and he said his tenure could be compared to the 11 days Anthony Scaramucci served as White House communications director in Trump's first term.
"A massive increase," Enten said. "So look, chances are Pete Hegseth will still be around come July, but the chance that he isn't has gone way up, and now there's a real question. That's why Donald Trump is sort of checking around. We'll just have to wait and see, and we're heading more towards that 50 over 50 mark that maybe Pete Hegseth's time at the Pentagon is winding down. The number of Scaramuccis is, we'll see."
"We'll see," agreed host Sara Sidner, "and Scaramucci certainly is listening to this, looking at his watch, as well."
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