CNN data analyst Harry Enten was left baffled by a new, “absolutely crazy” freefall in Donald Trump’s polling.
The 37-year-old stats wiz looked at Americans’ faith in the job market on Tuesday’s CNN News Central and found that “the American people have totally turned on Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump took a beautiful swan and turned it into an ugly duckling, as far as the American people are concerned,” said Enten.
Enten revealed that Trump’s approval rating on jobs and employment had sunk 22 points since the start of his second term, going from a respectable +9 to an abysmal -13. But the real stunner for Enten was how Trump fared among independents.
“You think that‘s nuts? Take a look at the independents. They go from +7, way, way, way down, off the screen, to -30 points! That‘s a 37-point drop in the net approval for Donald Trump among independents on the issue of jobs and employment," said Enten.
Enten’s segment comes one day before the Trump administration releases its January jobs report, which was delayed by the partial government shutdown earlier this month.
The economy only added 49,000 jobs per month in 2025, down from 168,000 under former President Joe Biden. This means Trump has presided over the weakest year for job gains outside of a recession since 2003.
Enten said that Americans are feeling the pain from the tough job market.
He revealed that 52 percent of Americans rate the job market as “bad,” compared to just 33 percent who view it as “good.” The opinion was evenly split 42 percent-42 percent at the start of Trump’s second term.
“That goes a long way to explain why Donald Trump‘s numbers on jobs and unemployment have fallen through the floor,” said Enten.
Enten concluded his segment by noting Americans don’t have hope that job numbers will improve during Trump’s term.
“50 percent [of Americans] now expect unemployment to go up in the next six months,” said Enten. “That is the highest saying that they expect unemployment to go up since the Great Recession.”
It’s unlikely that Wednesday’s jobs report will improve Americans’ outlook on the job market. On Tuesday, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro tried to claim that the new jobs report won’t look impressive only because the administration is deporting “millions” of migrants who were “stealing jobs” from Americans.
“We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like,” Navarro told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. “When we were letting in 2 million illegal aliens, we had to produce 200,000 jobs a month for a steady state.”
The excuse is similar to the one Trump’s National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett, gave to excuse the poor December jobs report. At the time, Hassett also boasted that the number was so bleak because the Trump administration had eliminated 250,000 federal jobs.
