'Not good news for Donald Trump': CNN panel dissects new report on former president's plummeting popularity

During a CNN "Inside Politics" panel discussion on Sunday morning, one longtime political commentator said new polling numbers that have just been released should be cause for concern for former president Donald Trump.

Speaking with host Kaitlan Collins, CNN analyst Jeff Zeleny said that Trump is starting to show greater weaknesses as he teases running for president again in 2024.

"A really interesting part of this new poll found that as of March of 2018 78% of Republicans thought their chances were better with Trump and now that number is 51%?" Collins prompted.

"That is fascinating there and not a good trajectory and what has happened during this period? Former president Trump has been sticking his head up more and been more active-- not like he's sitting on the sidelines," Zeleny replied. "This isn't happening in a vacuum. As I travel around the country and talk with Republicans and voters and other rank and file folks, there is, even among Trump supporters, not a lot of unanimity about they want him to come back."

"You wonder if it only goes down further what does it change going forward," Collins remarked. "Part of it said that 58% of the Republicans without a college degree thought their chances would be better with Trump. But when you ask college grads, only 34% thought they would be better with Trump as the leader."

"That's not a huge surprise because that's reflective of his support from the very beginning," Zeleny replied. "You can translate that to GOP establishment in some respects and outsider non-establishment. So, look, I think it puts the challenge on someone like Chris Christie and perhaps Chris Christie himself to come out and actually challenge Donald Trump face to face? So far no one has been willing to do that."

'We're seeing a delicate dance here and everyone waiting for him to disappear," he continued. "The former president says he keeps teasing he's going to have an announcement shortly -- I don't think it's coming shortly at all. He's going to draw that out in the next season perhaps. But this is not necessarily great news for Donald Trump, especially that declining number -- that's a fascinating number."

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