CNN’s Harry Enten says Donald Trump has joined an unwanted “brotherhood” of presidents whose tenures were “ruined” by high inflation.
The network’s chief data analyst said on Wednesday’s episode of News Central that while inflation has declined slightly, the American people still do not support how Trump is handling this key issue.
Enten noted that Trump’s net approval rating on inflation was minus 6 percentage points in January 2025, before hitting a “rock bottom” score of minus 50 in May 2026 and improving a “tiny, tiny bit” to minus 46 last month.
“The bottom line is, the long-term trend for Donald Trump’s net approval rating on inflation is down, down, down,” Enten said. “These are numbers that wreck presidencies. These are numbers that Republicans do not want to see going into a midterm election.”
Enten then revealed that Trump’s current approval rating on inflation is worse than those of one-term Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter at comparable points in their presidencies.
Biden, whose term in office was plagued by decades-high inflation in the wake of the COVID pandemic and the oil crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was at minus 43. Carter, whose high inflation resulted from a Middle East oil shock that sent energy prices soaring, recorded minus 44 at a similar point during his time in the White House.
“All these numbers are bad. They’re all in the same neighborhood, they’re sort of within the margin of error of each other,” Enten said.
“But if you’re looking at these two numbers and you understand history and you understand how inflation impacts presidencies, you do not want to be, if you’re Donald John Trump, in the brotherhood with Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on inflation, because inflation ruined their presidencies,” he added.
“And unless this number improves—and given that gas prices seem to be climbing again, it probably won’t—that means, as I said, a whole heck of a lot of pain for Republicans come the midterms.”
Trump made tackling the cost-of-living crisis and lowering inflation one of his top 2024 campaign pledges.
But he’s now accused of worsening the financial hardship facing tens of millions of Americans with his sweeping tariffs and his deeply unpopular war in Iran.
