CNN data analyst Harry Enten has spent years breaking down political polling.
But Donald Trump’s latest numbers managed to produce a reaction you don’t normally hear during a morning polling segment.
“Oh my God.”
Enten appeared on CNN Wednesday morning to examine Trump’s standing among what he called “pure independents” — voters who do not identify as leaning toward either political party.
What he found was a dramatic shift.
According to Enten’s analysis, Trump carried this group over Kamala Harris by 15 points in the 2024 presidential election.
Now Trump’s net approval rating among the same category of voters stands at negative 71 points.
That’s an 86-point movement away from Trump.
“I mean, these are the deep depths of the ocean,” Enten said.
He added that such numbers are rarely seen and emphasized the importance of independent voters in national elections.
But Enten wasn’t finished.
When he turned from Trump’s overall standing to how independents view his handling of the economy, the numbers moved even further.
Trump had held a +22-point advantage over Harris on the economy among these voters in 2024.
His current net approval on the economy among pure independents?
Negative 77.
That’s a staggering 99-point swing.
“A 99-point shift, and now at negative 77 points, and it’s not just one poll; I’m averaging multiple surveys here,” Enten said.
That’s when he delivered the reaction:
“Oh my God.”
CNN anchor John Berman responded that they were beginning to “run out of adjectives” to describe the size of the movement.
Then Enten turned to one issue helping drive the numbers.
Gas prices.
Among the pure independents included in the polling averages Enten presented, only 8% approved of Trump’s handling of gas prices.
A massive 92% disapproved.
Enten called that level of disapproval “near uniformity.”
And he had an even more colorful description of what those numbers could look like from the perspective of Republicans running in this fall’s midterms:
“The deep depths of hell.”
The segment fits into a broader and increasingly difficult polling picture for Trump.
A new CNN poll released Wednesday found independents moving away from the president and toward Democrats in congressional preferences.
On CNN’s generic congressional ballot, Democrats held an 11-point advantage over Republicans specifically among independents.
Overall, the poll found Democrats ahead 49%-41% on the generic congressional ballot. Among the voters CNN identified as most motivated to vote, that advantage was wider.
The same poll found 44% of voters said their midterm vote would be cast to oppose Trump, compared with 19% who said they were voting to support him. Another 37% said their vote wasn’t intended as a message about Trump.
There are important limitations to the dramatic comparisons Enten presented.
Comparing Trump’s 2024 election margins against Harris with his current job-approval numbers is not an apples-to-apples comparison of identical polling questions.
And polling represents a snapshot of opinion among the surveyed population — not a prediction of what will happen in November.
But the direction of movement among independents is difficult to miss.
And Trump himself clearly noticed Enten’s recent coverage.
Just days earlier, after Enten highlighted Trump’s historically poor polling on gas prices, Trump attacked CNN on Truth Social, calling the network “dishonest” and “FAKE NEWS.”
Now Enten has returned with another set of numbers.
This time, when he reached the 99-point shift among independent voters on the economy, even CNN’s data guru needed a moment.
“Oh my God.”
About the Author
The more Trump “doubles down” on those who oppose him or even disagree with him the more he angers and irritates people of every political persuasion and the smaller the corner he is painting himself into gets. Amen?