President Donald Trump's approval ratings left a stunned CNN analyst spluttering Friday morning.
Three separate surveys released this week — CNN at 34 percent, AP-NORC at 33 percent, and Quinnipiac University at 32 percent — all show Trump's approval sinking to new term-two lows, according to CNN's Harry Enten, saying the Quinnipiac figure represents an all-time low for Trump, while the CNN poll ties his previous record low.
"So is there a bottom?" Enten said. "It does not appear to be to me that there is a bottom for President Trump."
Comparing Trump's standing to other 21st-century presidents at the same point in their second terms, Enten noted that an average of the CNN, Quinnipiac and AP-NORC polls puts Trump at 33 percent approval. That trails Barack Obama, who stood at 41 percent at the equivalent point in his presidency, and George W. Bush, who was at 38 percent despite the ongoing Iraq War during the 2006 midterm cycle. Enten said one would need to go back to Richard Nixon to find a lower approval rating at this stage of a second term — noting that Nixon was resigning from office within weeks of hitting that mark in 1974.
"These guys were doing terrible, but he's doing terrible, terrible, terrible – you know, trying to do my best Charles Barkley here," Enten said, attempting a half-hearted impression of the NBA broadcaster's catchphrase. "I can't really do it this early in the morning, but it's just absolutely awful at this point. No wonder President Trump is a historic lows for a term-two president at this point."
Enten attributed Trump's decline primarily to economic dissatisfaction, pointing out that the economy was central to his return to the White House. On economic approval specifically, Trump sits at just 30 percent, compared to 38 percent for both Obama and Bush at the same point in their terms. Enten emphasized that despite those past presidents also struggling with economic approval, Trump's numbers are worse still.
With the November midterms less than 100 days away, Enten's analysis suggests that continued economic discontent could pose a significant political liability for the president and his party heading into the election cycle.
"When you're not pleased with the economy," he said, "you get the good old-fashioned boot, as far as the American people are concerned."
