President Donald Trump’s approval rating has been “underwater” for six months, a data expert has said.
Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, said the president has been “swimming with the fishes” for “the vast majority of his second presidency” because of poor polling.
Why It Matters
Trump’s approval rating is a useful snapshot of the mood of the nation and allows pundits and politicians alike to gauge the extent to which his policies are supported by Americans. An improving approval rating might buoy the administration and encourage it to continue its current political direction while—conversely—a negative rating might make it change course.
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Photo by: zz/XNY/STAR MAX/IPx 2025 9/7/25 P
What To Know
Speaking on CNN on Monday, Enten said: “I do see something of a pattern. Sometimes we lose the forest for the trees but I want to look at the forest and it is one ugly duckling forest that we are looking at for Donald Trump.”
He added that an aggregate of polls showed that Trump’s approval rating has been negative every day since March 12. It is unclear what polls were used.
“We’re talking about 181 days in a row in which Donald Trump has been underwater, swimming with the fishes,” he said. This length of time is “the vast majority of his second presidency,” he added.
On specific issues like crime, immigration, the economy, foreign policy and trade, Enten said that “Donald Trump is underwater on all of them.”
Enten attributed this shift to “two key groups,” Hispanics and people aged between 18 and 29 moving away from Trump.
In February, Trump had a net approval rating among these groups of -6 percentage points and +2 percentage points respectively, Enten said. But by September, this had shifted to -34 percentage points and -30 points.
“No wonder Donald Trump’s in trouble,” Enten said.
Sometimes I feel like we lose the forest for the trees:
Trump’s net approval has been underwater for 181 days in a row.
He’s currently underwater on every major issue (including crime & immigration).
His net approval w/ Latinos & those under 30 has dropped ~30 pt since Feb! pic.twitter.com/yzBK6uRwd2
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) September 8, 2025
Other recent polls have shown that Trump’s approval rating has fallen among certain demographic groups. According to polling by The Economist/YouGov, Trump’s net approval rating among Americans with a yearly income of more than $100,000 was at -16 percentage points, down from -10 recorded in July.
Meanwhile, according to polling by ActiVote, Trump’s net approval rating among rural Americans has declined from +22 percentage points in August to +14 points in September.
However, according to polling by The Economist/You Gov, the proportion of white voters who support Trump has increased by 8 percentage points following a decline.
Trump’s net approval rating among white people has increased from -2 percentage points in July, when 47 percent said they approved of him and 49 percent said they disapproved, to +6 percentage points in September. In this latest poll, 51 percent of white people said they approved of Trump and 45 percent said they disapproved of him.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, in an August 24 post on Truth Social, said: “Except what is written and broadcast in the Fake News, I now have the highest poll numbers I’ve ever had, some in the 60’s and even 70’s. Thank you. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
What Happens Next
Trump’s polling will likely fluctuate as his presidency continues. Whether it sinks low enough to affect Republican results in the November 2026 midterm elections remains to be seen.
