CNN’s data guru predicts the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro will backfire politically for President Donald Trump.
Harry Enten said a military operation in Venezuela was unpopular even among Republicans before Saturday’s attack, with only 39 percent of right-wing respondents favoring such action in a Reuters/IPSOS poll.
The same survey found that 47 percent opposed military intervention, while 29 percent were unsure. Enten says he cannot imagine those figures will increase significantly in Trump’s favor now.
“I’d be really surprised that this turns out to be a positive for Donald Trump, or at least support for this operation,” the chief data analyst said.
Enten said no major polls have emerged since Delta Force commandos captured Maduro, 63, and his wife in the early hours of Saturday morning. However, he said interest in the operation has fallen off a cliff since Saturday.
The data analyst said that Google searches for Venezuela and the operation were down by 70 percent from their peak. Even when interest was at its highest, Enten said that search traffic for Maduro was 74 percent lower than it was for Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
“Folks’ interest in this story has very much been going adios, amigos, goodbye,“ Enten said.
The analyst said that the special forces operation that took out bin Laden did not significantly boost Obama politically long-term. He suggested that Trump has more to lose than to gain on Maduro.
“You look at these numbers, there’s fleeing interest in the story, and way less interest than we had back during a military operation that did provide a boost to Obama, but not really one that was long-lasting,” he said.
Trump, who has called himself the “peace president,” has been under fire for suggesting that the United States will be running Venezuela in Maduro’s absence. He has also made veiled threats to other U.S. allies, like Mexico and Colombia.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, “Don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial.”
He immediately added, “We’re in charge.”
That sort of talk from Trump is a stark difference from the campaign trail. There, he promised to end the war between Ukraine and Russia on day one of his presidency and said he would not start any new global conflicts.
Now, the president is orchestrating regime change in Latin America—and reportedly denying the opposition leader María Corina Machado a chance to lead the country because he remains upset that she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize he so badly wanted, according to The New York Times.
