You're fired: CNN reveals the magic number that gets Trump aides the boot

When President Donald Trump's previous Cabinet officials reached -15 points in popularity, they were shoved out shortly after, explained CNN data analyst Harry Enten.

Speaking about the failing approval ratings among Trump's Cabinet officials, Enten recalled that former Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped to -16 points and -22 points, respectively, at the time that they were forced to resign.

Currently, Vice President JD Vance has an approval of -17 points, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is at -22 points, Secretary Marco Rubio is -8 points and Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is -9 points.

The worst, however, is Hegseth, who has been in a bad spot across the board.

"This has been something that's been going on throughout the entire administration. He has been underwater in every single poll that I could find. That is his job disapproval rating being above his job approval rating. And Iran has not helped," said Enten.

It's a particularly widening gap compared to Rubio, whose numbers aren't great, but he's facing the same Iran issues. Meanwhile, Axios reported last week that Rubio has been running the pressure campaign against Cuba, which may be the site of the next war, according to military planners.

"Every time they create a new mechanism in which they try to get out of the noose, we just close it off," Rubio said. "They certainly can't wait us out. Certainly this isn't going to go away for the next 2½ years."

"Rubio is the one who, relatively speaking, has come out smelling like roses, especially as he looks ahead to 2028," Enten said.

The data expert also compared Hegseth to previous Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was at -7 points in 2006, when the war with Iraq was raging and Democrats were poised to take over the House after several years under GOP control.

"Because remember, Don Rumsfeld was essentially forced to resign after those midterm elections, after Republicans got crushed," recalled Enten. "And I think there's some question if the midterms go the way that a lot of folks think they might go, will Donald Trump's turn on this gentleman right here, perhaps change a little bit? Well, we'll have to wait and see."

While Trump had continued to publicly support Bondi and Noem, they were forced out while those words of praise continued.

"And now we got Pete Hegseth, who is more unpopular than either of these two women on the left side of your screen. So again, I have to ask the question: how long is Donald Trump going to stick by Pete Hegseth? He is currently. But these numbers suggest he might not always be," said Enten.

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