President Donald Trump delivered a record-long State of the Union address, but a data analyst found it was his "least well-received speech" yet.
The 79-year-old uncorked a one-hour, 48-minute address boasting about the economy and attacking his Democratic rivals as "crazy," but CNN's Harry Enten said the early reviews don't look promising for his second-term popularity.
"You know, State of the Unionaddresses, simply put, usually dodiddly-squat, diddly-doo," Enten said. "Why doI say that? Because take a lookhere: Okay, average shift inapproval rating post-State ofthe Union address since 1977, theaverage president has seen ashift of zero-zero-zero-zero points when itcomes to their approval rating.You look back at Trump's firstterm – well, I guess it's a shiftof one point, but when it's zero or one point, you know, that State ofthe Unions, simply put, don'treally move the needle."
He doesn't expect this year's speech to do anything to bring up the president's dismal approval rating.
"History is one thing, right, butthe idea is, you know, Donald Trump's a unique figure in American politics," Enten said. "He can dothings that other people can't, but if you look at our post-poll,right after the State of the Union, I, simply put, don't seeit for him. Why do I say that?Okay, view of Trump's speech to Congress, very positive, amongspeech viewers who are more Republican than the electorate overall, this was actually theleast well-received speech.We're talking about 38 percent ofspeech viewers who viewed thespeech very positive, and thatis lower than in 2025, when itwas 44 percent, lower than in 2019, whenit was 59 percent, lower than in 2018,when it was 48 percent and lower thanit was in 2017, when it was 57 percent."
"The bottom line is this: State ofthe Union addresses, simply put,do not move, traditionallyspeaking, the Americanelectorate and this Trump speechespecially, so is not likely tomove things because, simply put,it was the less, the least well-received one among speechviewers of any of the speechesthat Donald John Trump has givento a joint session of Congress," Enten added.
Trump's approval rating has been underwater for nearly a year now, Enten said, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon.
"Donald Trump hasbeen underwater for nearly ayear now, nearly a year, anegative net approval ratingevery day, in my aggregate, since March 12, 2025," Enten said. "That is 351days in a row. Look, the bottomline is this: Donald Trump wentinto the speech not well likedvery much to a near historicdegree, to a historic degree forany president at this point intheir second term, and basedupon the reaction last night, Isee no reason to think that Donald Trump won't continue tobe swimming in the deep blue sea,well, underwater because, simplyput, that speech was not as well-received as his prior ones and,simply put, State of the Unionaddresses don't move things, andthat leaves Donald Trump a gununderwater, and likely this 351will become 365."