CNN’s resident data expert highlighted that a majority of Americans believe Donald Trump to be a proponent of the “swamp” he promised to “drain.”
The network’s chief data correspondent, Harry Enten, explained on CNN News Central Thursday morning that the 80-year-old president’s mission of tackling corruption isn’t going swimmingly in the eyes of Americans.
“President Trump came into Washington with the promise of cleaning up the swamp,” Enten said. “Well, the American people say he is failing at doing so, and increasingly so.”
The data guru pointed to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll from Wednesday, which found that more than half of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of corruption.
“You obviously want that number to be south of 50 percent,” he said. “It was south of 50 percent at the beginning of Trump’s second term. Look at that—43 percent. But now, up like a rocket. We’re talking nearly three in five Americans, 59 percent, disapprove of the job that Donald Trump is doing on corruption.”
Enten noted that among independents, the number was even higher at 64 percent.
“The American people are increasingly believing that Donald Trump is not the person to clean up the swamp. If anything, he is now a member of the swamp,” he continued. “His disapproval ratings on corruption, something he had promised coming into term number two—not where you want to be. The majority of Americans think, in fact, they disapprove.”
The data expert then explained that Americans are concerned that Trump’s business interests are interfering with the duties of the presidency.
“A very not nice 69 percent of Americans overall say that Trump’s business interests influence his decisions as president,” Enten said. “Even 48 percent of Republicans... who have stuck with Donald Trump through thick and thin, who thought that his business acumen, his business experience would be something that would actually help him keep him out of the swamp, now say—48 percent say—his business interests actually influence his decisions as president.”
“When you get 69 percent overall and nearly half of your own Republican base saying that your business interests actually influence your decisions as president, no wonder your disapproval rating on corruption—up like a rocket, jumping up and down,” he concluded.
The poll, conducted between Friday and Monday, also found that 51 percent of Americans consider the Trump administration more corrupt than other contemporary administrations.
