'Eye-popping' polls find Trump in 'Death Valley' with 'no sign of rising': CNN data expert

President Donald Trump has sunk to historic lows in his approval rating, and CNN's Harry Enten sees "no sign" that he can turn things around.

The 79-year-old president has been underwater in approval for more than a year now, and his war in Iran has driven up fuel costs around the world and made consumer costs even higher, which has driven down his approval rating even lower.

"We are talking as low as Death Valley, and this, I think is so key here," Enten said. "You know, it is sped up now, but this has been a steady fall into the abyss – there is no bottom, Death Valley. See, that is how low we are going, and look at this. I think this really just kind of shows that it is not one event that is dragging Donald Trump down. It's a slew of events that have come together and have continuously dropped his net approval rating. You know, you go back to last year, when he was sworn in for a second term, he was at plus-six points, then minus-three points a year ago, minus-seven points nine months ago, minus-10 points on Oct. 20, 2025."

"January 2026, minus-13 points, and now all the way down to minus-18 points, a term-two low, and what is so key to point out here is let's just say that somehow we got out of the Iran war tomorrow," Enten added. "Yeah, might ctlimb a little bit, but we have seen this steady, slow or steady and dropping number that just seems no sign of rising."

That trend is different from his first term, when Trump was actually rising in approval at this point in 2018, and Enten said his approval with independents was historically awful.

"Eye-popping indeed," Enten said. "This number, if there's one big number from this is that Donald Trump now has the worst net approval rating among independents of any president ever at this point in term two, he is worse than Richard Nixon, who would be going adios, amigos in a few months back in 1974, and term two, look at this, minus-45 points, worse than George W. Bush at this point in term two, the Iraq war was weighing him down at minus-37 and worse than Richard Nixon, when, of course, there were all those impeachment hearings back in 1974, at minus-36, he's nearly 10 points worse among independents on his net approval rating at this point in term two, Donald Trump, than Richard Nixon. My goodness gracious."

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