CNN's Harry Enten's eyes popped at the latest polling for President Donald Trump on a crucial economic issue.
The 80-year-old president has earned the highest disapproval rating on gasoline prices of any president on record, Enten said, as energy officials forecast continued limits on travel through the Strait of Hormuz for the rest of the month and gas and energy prices keep fluctuating – just over two months before the midterm elections.
"The American people very much dislike, I dare say hate, President Trump when it comes to gas prices," Enten said. "In fact, no president has been hated more when it comes to gas prices."
An average of polls shows 79 percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling gas prices, Enten said, a mark no other modern president has reached. By comparison, Joe Biden topped out at 72 percent disapproval, George W. Bush hit 75 percent amid high prices in 2006, and Barack Obama, unpopular in his own right in 2011, reached only 68 percent.
With prices above $4 a gallon in many places, Enten said, "the American people are taking their anger out on the president of the United States."
Enten's breakdown by party found a whopping 96 percent of Democrats disapprove, along with 85 percent of independents and, notably, 52 percent of Republicans, meaning a majority of Trump's own base has turned against him on this issue.
"That loyal Republican base who has been through thick and thin with Donald John Trump, even they have turned against the president of the United States on gas prices," Enten said. "You get the rare trifecta, and in the case of President Trump, a very painful trifecta indeed."
Working-class voters, a group that has historically broken strongly for Trump and Republican candidates, are especially angry over gas prices, according to Enten. Among Americans earning less than $50,000 a year, disapproval reaches roughly 86 percent overall, and broken down further, about two in three working-class Republicans disapprove, along with 90 percent of working-class independents and 93 percent of working-class Democrats.
I mean, what is that we're talking about more than six in seven – I don't even know when we get the fractions that high – my goodness gracious," Enten said. "I mean, you just don't ever see numbers like these. These are just atrocious numbers among the working class. A trifecta indeed, and a very clear trifecta of the working class turning against President Trump, regardless of party identification."
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