CNN's Harry Enten found that voters agree that Donald Trump's second presidency has been a "failure" on one of the key issues that got him back into office.
The 79-year-old president was re-elected in 2024 in part due to his promise to bring down consumer prices, but the chief data analyst told "CNN News Central" that a strong majority Americans believe the economy is getting worse and don't believe that Trump is focused on improving conditions for them.
"Here is the reality check for everyone, and I would just say this," Enten said. "This is the problem for the president of the United States. You get elected to fix the economy and the American people, they ain't buying it because just take a look here: Say the economy is getting worse, right after Donald Trump was elected back in 2024, re-elected, 42 percent of Americans said the economy is getting worse. Well, you want that number to go down. You want that number to go down, if you're the president of the United States, instead it's going up."
"What are we talking about now, 55 percent of Americans say that the economy is getting worse," he added. "I don't know how you win when the majority of Americans say the economy is getting worse because you go back through the record books, and that is a formula that equals failure."
Last month's news was dominated by coverage of Trump's immigration surge in Minnesota, which left two Americans dead in shootings by federal agents, but Enten said they want the president to focus on their economic concerns.
"Much of the news stories over the month of January were focused in on Minneapolis, focusing in on controlling immigration and reducing crime," Enten said. "Those are two things that the president of the United States and his administration has been arguing about. But where do the American folks say that Trump should be focused, say their top priority should be lowering prices, 54 percent, the clear majority. We have looked at poll after poll after poll after poll after poll. I'm exhausting myself just talking about it. Every single poll say that their top priority should be lowering prices or the economy, and it is still the case much lower down. Controlling immigration at 22 percent, even lower than that, reducing crime at 10 percent. You add together 22 and 10, you get to 32, and you don't have to be a mathematical genius to know that 54 is larger than 32."
"The Trump administration is putting their focus on the wrong issues, the issues that are not most important to the American public, and when you are focusing on the wrong issues and the vast majority of Americans, or the clear majority of Americans, say that the economy is getting worse," Enten added. "Again, this is X plus Y equals failure – failure, failure, failure – going into the midterm elections, because Donald Trump was elected to fix the economy, and it's still believing the American people that lowering prices should be the top, and at this point, 55 percent say the economy is getting worse."
