President Donald Trump is having an unhappy anniversary when it comes to his net approval rating.
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten averaged a year’s worth of political polling and discovered Trump has a negative net approval rating for an entire year. That means Trump is more underwater than any president in this century, Enten claims.
“According to my average of polls, what we've been looking at is every day since March 12th, 2025, President Trump has been underwater. ... We have now reached the point in which Trump has been swimming with the fishes for a year.”
Independent voters are a key reason why, Enten says.
Compared to other presidents at this point in their second term, Trump’s 38 percent underwater approval is “worse than (Barack) Obama by 20 points. That is worse than George W. Bush by double digits,” even with Bush’s drag on approval caused by the botched Katrina hurricane recovery efforts, the Iraq war and the Great Recession.
A Fox News poll indicates the dissatisfaction with Trump stems from a belief that he’s focusing on the wrong things. Some 60 percent in general believe that, with a whopping 78 percent of independents holding that view, Enten says.
That indicates an extreme likelihood that the midterms will be a blue wave for Democrats.
“We've been talking about the House and pretty much every historical marker, all the prediction markets, all the polling, indicates that the Democrats are in the catbird seat when it comes back to taking back the House,” Enten said. “But how about combining it with the United States Senate? That is taking back the whole enchilada, taking back all of Congress.”
Enten labeled the prospect of Dems taking both bodies “quite shocking, because a lot of folks like myself thought Democrats would take back the House. But the idea of taking back the Senate as well, that is a pretty big deal.”
