The intensifying crackdown on immigration in Minnesota is dragging down President Donald Trump's approval rating, according to a new analysis, but he seems bent on raising the temperature.
The 79-year-old president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to protests against his mass deportation campaign and the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and CNN's Harry Enten said the chaotic scenes caught on video seem to be denting his support.
"Immigration helped Donald Trump get elected to a second term," Enten said. "It's been something he's been running on since he first ran for the presidency back in the 2015, 2016 cycle, and I think there's this idea out there that immigration is a strength for him. It's why he keeps going back to being very aggressive on immigration enforcement. But it is a strength no longer – it's a weakness."
"What are we talking about here?" he added. "Well, take a look here: Trump's net approval rating on immigration, you go back a year ago he was in the positive at plus-eight points – two thumbs up. You come over to this side of the screen – hello. Look at this drop: way, way down in the basement, now down to minus-11 points. That's a nearly 20-point switcheroo in the negative direction. The American people have turned on Donald Trump when it comes to immigration enforcement. They do not like what he is doing, simply put."
Trump has long operated on the assumption that Americans want to see punitive enforcement of immigration laws, Enten said, but polling indicates they don't like the way his administration has implemented that policy.
"Donald Trump may have this idea that I want to be hawkish on immigration, that's what the American people want to see," Enten said. "They want to see that we're really going out there, and we're rounding up people who are in the country illegally. But take a look on this. This, I think, really gives the game away. How long has Trump had a negative net approval rating on immigration? It has been every day since the Los Angeles ICE protests."
"Remember, that was the first real sort of fight between those protesters and those folks out there on ICE," he added. "That was, of course, back in June of 2025, and we have now had 218 days in a row in which Donald Trump has had a net negative approval rating on immigration. Again, the American people do not like the way that Donald Trump is enforcing the immigration laws in this country."
ICE has emerged as a villain in the public imagination, Enten said, and that agency's unpopularity is weighing down the president's approval.
"ICE as an institution is failing in the polls and it is dragging Donald Trump down with them," he said. "What are we talking about here? Well, take a look here. ICE net approval rating in Trump's first term, he was at zero point – excuse me, ICE was at zero points. You know, not too hot to trot, but not too bad either. It was higher than Donald Trump's overall approval rating. But now look at this: minus-17 points, minus-17 points, the net approval rating of ICE among independents. It's even lower than that, 31 points underwater. ICE is dragging Trump down, and Trump's immigration approval rating down with him."
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