Trump's big trip starts with polling gut punch from data analyst: 'Down he goes'

Just moments after President Donald Trump and his entourage of officials and business leaders landed in Beijing, China, CNN data analyst Harry Enten dropped a series of brutal poll numbers on how Americans rate the president’s handling of China.

“In term number one, China was a strength for Donald Trump, Americans really liked what he was doing vis-à-vis China, and no longer is that the case,” Enten said on Wednesday, moments after Trump landed in China ahead of his two-day summit with President Xi Jinping.

“In term number one, he was at plus-nine points – that's pretty gosh-darned good! They liked the way Trump was dealing with China, but down he goes into the red sea, now at minus-15 points! That's a drop of nearly 25 points from where he was in term number one to now.”

In terms of which voters were driving Trump’s cratering poll numbers, Enten flagged two key groups: independent and non-college educated white voters, two groups that were critical to the president’s 2024 election victory.

According to the polling, which was sourced from the conservative network Fox News, independent and non-college-educated white voters supported Trump’s handling of China during his first term at margins of plus-9 and plus-34, respectively. Now, those figures have plummeted to minus-42 and minus-3, respectively.

Furthermore, worldwide favorability of the United States has plummeted since 2021 when compared with China.

“China's image is improving; the United States' image? Going down!” Enten said.

“It was plus-11 points in 2021; the latest numbers for the United States under Trump, look at that: minus-15, that's a switch-a-roo of over 25 points! So China's image [is] improving, the United States' image [is] going down under Trump just like his own numbers on China [are] going down here in the United States.”