President Donald Trump's most popular cabinet official has been plummeting in public approval as he takes aim at a broadly accepted policy.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will conduct a new review of abortion pills, the latest move taking aim at health care matters that has included vaccine mandates and Tylenol use by pregnant women that Americans had come to take for granted as uncontroversial.
And CNN data analyst Harry Enten said his actions have his approval ratings plunging.
"Down it goes," Enten said. "What are we talking about here?Well, let's take a look.Net approval rating in March, according to Quinnipiac itwas minus-11. You go to June, down it goes to minus-15, and now, data that's just out this week, minus-21 points. We've seen a drop of 10 points since March. The more RFK Jr. Isimplementing or trying toimplement his policies, the further down his net approval rating goes, and at this particular point,21 points underwater is not a place you want to be."
Kennedy had been the most popular Trump official at the start of this month, with a net approval rating of minus-7 points, but the more the public sees from him the less they agree with his policies, Enten said.
"What is going on here?" Enten added. "Well, I think, you know, RFK issort of a two-faced guy when itcomes to the American public.What do they like about RFK Jr.?Well, Americans who supportrestricting artificial fooddyes. Look at this: It's 60 percent.That, of course, is somethingthat RFK Jr. has been trying toimplement, right? They like RFK Jr. when it comes to food dyesand stuff in food.
"Butlook at this: Trust RFK Jr. onvaccine information, he'ssignificantly lower. He's downat 37 percent, and obviously, RFK Jr. has been trying to change someof the advice that's going onfrom the federal government whenit comes to vaccines. Americansdo not trust RFK Jr., they donot like him on vaccines. Theylike him when it comes to fooddyes, they don't like him onvaccines, and this has been thenumber that has been far more inthe news recently. If I wereadvising RFK in terms of if hewanted to be more popular, I'dbe focusing on this."
"I think that this isthe real worry, right, becausethey don't trust RFK Jr., right, on vaccine information, and takea look here," Enten added. "Gives trustworthyinfo on public health? The CDC,it was 72 percent last year. Look atthis: It's 64 percent now. How aboutthe FDA? It was 73 percent last year, it's 63 percent now. Most of thisdecline is coming from Democrats,who all of a sudden arewondering, can I actually trustthe information that's comingout of the federal government,whether or not it is coming outof RFK Jr.'s mouth? Becauseobviously, as you said, allthose agencies that he'soverlooking, those are veryimportant.
"If the publicdoesn't trust them, we've gotmajor problems, and at thisparticular point, when you lookat these numbers, the flip sideis now more than a third of Americans are not confident inthe information that they aregetting at either the CDC or theFDA, which I think a lot ofpublic health officials arequite worried about."