Trump's speech was his 'least well-received' State of the Union yet: data guru
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 Union addresses, simply put, usually do diddly-squat, diddly-doo," Enten said. "Why do I say that? Because take a look here: Okay, average shift in approval rating post-State of the Union address since 1977, the average president has seen a shift of zero-zero-zero-zero points when it comes to their approval rating. You look back at Trump's first term – well, I guess it's a shift of one point, but when it's zero or one point, you know, that State of the Unions, simply put, don't really 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, but the idea is, you know, Donald Trump's a unique figure in American politics," Enten said. "He can do things 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 see it for him. Why do I say that? Okay, view of Trump's speech to Congress, very positive, among speech viewers who are more Republican than the electorate overall, this was actually the least well-received speech. We're talking about 38 percent of speech viewers who viewed the speech very positive, and that is lower than in 2025, when it was 44 percent, lower than in 2019, when it was 59 percent, lower than in 2018, when it was 48 percent and lower than it was in 2017, when it was 57 percent."
"The bottom line is this: State of the Union addresses, simply put, do not move, traditionally speaking, the American electorate and this Trump speech especially, so is not likely to move things because, simply put, it was the less, the least well-received one among speech viewers of any of the speeches that Donald John Trump has given to 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 has been underwater for nearly a year now, nearly a year, a negative net approval rating every day, in my aggregate, since March 12, 2025," Enten said. "That is 351 days in a row. Look, the bottom line is this: Donald Trump went into the speech not well liked very much to a near historic degree, to a historic degree for any president at this point in their second term, and based upon the reaction last night, I see no reason to think that Donald Trump won't continue to be swimming in the deep blue sea, well, underwater because, simply put, that speech was not as well-received as his prior ones and, simply put, State of the Union addresses don't move things, and that leaves Donald Trump a gun underwater, and likely this 351 will become 365."
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