Donald Trump’s approval ratings on the economy have fallen to a level that now places him behind Joe Biden at a comparable point in his presidency. CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten revealed that the president has entered what he called an unwanted “brotherhood” of leaders whose White House tenures were “ruined” by inflation.
Harry Enten compares Donald Trump’s polls to Joe Biden
Speaking on Wednesday’s episode of News Central, Enten laid out a stark trajectory. Trump’s net approval on inflation sat at minus 6 percentage points in January 2025. By May 2026, that figure had collapsed to a “rock bottom” score of minus 50. It has since recovered only a “tiny, tiny bit,” landing at 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.”
The analysis then led Enten to compare Trump’s numbers alongside those of two one-term Democratic presidents. Joe Biden, who battled decades-high inflation following the pandemic and the energy shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recorded a net rating of minus 43 at the same stage. Jimmy Carter, whose administration was defined by an oil crisis that sent prices soaring, held a minus 44 score.
“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 noted. Yet he stressed the historical warning embedded in the comparison.
“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.”
Donald Trump had the cost-of-living crisis at the centre of his 2024 campaign, promising to bring prices down. Critics now argue that his sweeping tariffs and the unpopular war with Iran have intensified the financial strain on tens of millions of Americans.
(Source: The Daily Beast)
