CNN’s resident data guru said that one potential move by Trump could bring him some much-needed favor among his constituents.
Harry Enten, the network’s chief data correspondent, told CNN News Central host John Berman on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed move to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent is sparking Americans’ curiosity.
“It is generating a ton of interest, John Berman,” Enten told the host. “Just take a look here: Google searches for credit card rate cap up 3200 percent versus a year ago.”
“Up like a rocket,” Enten continued. “And every single poll that I have looked at, it’s an extremely popular policy, and therefore, I’m not sure about the policy, but it is great—at this point—great, great, great politics."
Enten explained that the move would be a step in the right direction for Trump in appealing to what Americans care about most, the cost of living.
“The majority of Americans—55 percent—say credit card debt is a stress in my life," Enten said, citing AP-NORC and Marquette Law polling. “More than that, where cost of living ranks, in terms of the top issues, in terms of what’s affecting you and your family, it is number one in poll after poll after poll.”
“That is why there’s so much interest in something that I think a lot of Americans think can address the very issue that they feel is número uno, and that is the cost of living,” he added.
“Another reason why I think this is great politics,” Enten explained, pertains to the bipartisanship of the issue. He showed that the percentage of Americans with credit card debt was almost identical across party affiliations, with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all around 50 percent.
“All of a sudden, Donald Trump saying, ‘Hey, let me find an issue in which I can unite the different factions in this country behind something that I am trying to propose here,’” Enten said. “This is it, baby. This is the issue that unites Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
In terms of how likely the decision is to actually happen, the data expert said it’s only about a one-in-three chance, citing prediction market odds.
“So, good politics talking about it, but actually getting it accomplished, that I think is a little bit tougher to do,” Enten concluded.
Trump, 79, has delivered inconsistent messaging on affordability. It is an issue he campaigned heavily on and has also railed against as a “hoax” while president.
At a Pennsylvania rally in December, the president said, “Prices are coming down very substantially. But they have a new word, they always have a hoax. The new word is affordability.”
“When [Democrats] use the word affordability, they never say anything else,” Trump also told reporters last month. “‘This election is about affordability,’ and then they go into the next subject. It’s a con job.”
Though public opinion appears to be in favor of the president’s idea to cap credit card interest rates, House Speaker Mike Johnson was wary of the decision, saying that the House “ought to think about and investigate” the proposal.
“Like everything else we, you know, you would need legislation to do something like that, and we’d have a lot of work to build consensus around it, but you got to be very careful if you go forward in that,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “In our zeal to bring down costs, you don’t want to have negative secondary effects.”
