It was shocking enough to hear President Donald Trump praise a CNN journalist this week, but the compliments are even more surprising when you consider how often the chief data analyst in question highlights the president’s sinking approval ratings.

On Tuesday, Trump was asked about the perception that “MAGA is divided” and the president’s answer led to him calling CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten a “good guy” and “honorable.”

He said:

I mean I appreciate the question because even CNN, they did a poll two three weeks ago they said Trump is at 100 percent. That’s Harry Enten.

I like Harry Enten, you know. He’s got a lot of energy. I like him.

But he did a poll and he’s a good pro, and he gives the good and the bad, but I think he’s an honorable guy because we got a lot of good.

You know, he predicted I was going to do great with the Muslims in Michigan and win Michigan, and I did. I did good, and I won Michigan by a lot.

He made a lot of good predictions.

But he did a poll two weeks ago that said Trump is, I mean, this is up. You can check. 100 percent popularity with MAGA.

Enten had highlighted new sinking polling for the president that very day, saying he “keeps falling through the floor” in approval surveys.

The president has bragged about this “100%” poll in the past. Enten highlighted an NBC poll showing Trump with 100% approval among MAGA voters. The poll asked whether people consider themselves MAGA to which 30% said yes, so the president received 100% approval among 30% of respondents. Overall in the survey, he received 44% approval and 54% disapproval.

Enten has noted in his reporting that polling averages still show Trump with strong popularity among voters who identify themselves as MAGA or Republican, but he’s seen overall support diving amid the ongoing Iran war, rising gas prices, and more.

Trump may have been happy with Enten’s reporting on MAGA voters, but here are five times he highlighted just how historically bad the president’s approval situation really is.

5. Enten Tells Trump Gas Prices Are ‘Political Nightmare’ as He Hits All-Time Disapproval Rating on Costs

In a segment this month, Enten reported Trump had hit an all-time disapproval rating for any president when it comes to gas prices. According to AAA, the national average for gas has jumped to over $4.50. It sat at below $3 before the war with Iran.

“You know, oftentimes when gas prices go up, the president pays a price, but never this much because we’re talking about a record here,” Enten announced, showing 79% of Americans disapprove of the president when it comes to gas prices.

Trump’s negative number was beating former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, Enten added.

“This is a record high, in terms of looking back at every single president this century,” he said.

He added that Trump’s numbers on gas prices are a “political nightmare.”

“President Trump better hope that those gas prices fall. Republicans, especially, because otherwise this holds up going into the midterm elections, that is no bueno,” he said.

Check out the segment here.

4. ‘These Are Atrocious’ Enten Hits Trump With Reality Check on Approval

Enten appears to be getting plenty of use out of his thesaurus in coming up with new ways to describe Americans’ disapproval of the president and his recent policies.

In segment last month, Enten showed an “atrocious” trendline when comparing Trump’s approval now compared to others points during his presidency.

He reported:

These are atrocious. This trendline is atrocious. Trump’s net approval rating on the economy in term one at this point, look at this. Trump was above water at plus two points. It was a plus sign for him. This was one of his best issues. It was the reason he got elected to a second term back in 2024. Look at this. In January 2025, at the beginning of his second term, he was at plus six points. But down he goes! Look at this. He’s now at negative 32 points, his net approval rating on the economy. That is down – get this – nearly 40 points from where he was at the beginning of his second term. This is the worst rating in the average of polls that Donald Trump has ever had on such a key issue for him.

Check out the segment here.

3. ‘Oh My Goodness’ Enten Shocked by Trump’s Freefall Among Latino Men

“Oh my goodness,” Enten remarked as he reported earlier this month on Trump’s 50-plus point drop in approval among Latino men, a voting bloc that helped him win in the 2024 presidential election.

Enten noted Trump received a “record share for a Republican presidential nominee” among Latino voters, but many have not “abandoned” him.

“His job approval rating, in an average of CNN polls this year, 28%. That is an 18-point drop. The bottom has completely fallen out when it comes to Donald Trump and Latino voters. He won record numbers of them back in 2024, and they have abandoned him with the utmost just dislike of what he is doing so far,” he said.

Check out the segment here.

2. Enten Reports Trump’s New Poll Theme Is Negative Approval

Enten reported earlier this month that Trump’s has had a net negative approval rating in every poll since March 2025.

The negative 20 points is the lowest for Trump’s second term. Making matters worse, Enten added, is how many Trump polls are trending negative these days.

He said:

So this is the average of polling, but I was just thinking, hey, have there been any polls recently in which Trump has not had a negative net approval rating like he does in the aggregate of polling?

And you go back in time because this really just sort of takes the cake. Trump’s negative, a negative net approval rate, every poll since March 29, 2025, that is over a year ago, you can’t find a single poll in which he has anything but a net negative approval rating!

Check out the segment here.

1. Enten Declares Trump Getting ‘Worst Polls Ever for Any President’ on Inflation Just Days Before Trump Praise

Just two days before Trump heaped praise on him, Enten declared the president is in trouble because he’s receiving the “worst polls ever for any president” when it comes to inflation. As Enten has noted, the economy was one of the stronger points Trump polled on, until more recently with the Iran war driving up gas prices and overall costs.

On CNN’s Table for Five on Saturday, Enten responded to Trump declaring that the state of the economy and high costs are not motivating him to make a deal with Iran.

The president said:

Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.

Enten hit Trump with a reality check when it comes to his approval numbers on the war, noting Trump is polling worse on inflation than former President Jimmy Carter, whose critics often threw out the term “stagflation” to describe the economic reality under the then-administration.

This reality, Enten argued, is what made Trump’s comment about the economy so head-scratching.

Enten said:

A majority of Americans are against this war, and regardless of what exactly he did mean, the context matters, but also here’s what also matters, Democrats love that comment. They’re going to cut it and put it in so many ads before the midterm elections, my goodness gracious. It’s a dopey comment from that perspective. And more than that, we’re talking about 79% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump on gas prices. That is the highest percentage that any president has had disapproving them on gas prices in any question I could possibly find. When we’re talking inflation, right, We’re taking about the worst polls ever for any president belong to Donald John Trump. It’s worse, he’s doing worse than [Jimmy] Carter. He’s doing worst than Joe Biden did in his last term. When you put it all together, you just go, man alive, man. What are you doing?

Check out the segment here.

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