Harry Enten dismisses Dems’ claim shutdown is tanking Trump’s popularity: ‘Not hurting him at all’

WASHINGTON, DC: It looks like CNN just rubbished the Democrats’ favorite talking point that the ongoing government shutdown is hurting President Donald Trump’s public image.

According to the network’s resident data whiz, Harry Enten, the ongoing government shutdown hasn’t dented Trump’s popularity one bit. In fact, the president’s approval rating actually went up.

Harry Enten says Trump’s approval holds steady despite govt shutdown

CNN’s data guru Harry Enten told host John Berman that “shutdowns are different the second time around when it comes to Donald Trump.

He pointed to new figures from an AP-NORC poll showing Trump’s net approval rating ticked up by one point as the shutdown stretched into its 20th day.  That’s a sharp contrast to the 2018–2019 debacle, when Trump’s numbers plummeted three points by the same mark.

“In 2018/2019, Donald Trump’s approval rating was already falling, the shutdown was eating into his popular support,” Enten reminded viewers. “It was down three points already at this particular point and would fall considerably more.”

But that’s not the case this time around. With Democrats and Republicans locked in a stalemate over healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, Enten says Trump’s base isn’t budging.

“This shutdown hasn’t eaten into Donald Trump’s support at all,” he said. “His net approval rating is actually up a point in terms of his popular support. So the bottom line is this, the first shutdown during Trump’s first term 2018 and 2019 was hurting Donald Trump. This one is not hurting him at all. There’s no real reason Donald Trump might say, at least when it comes to popular support, ‘I want to get out of this shutdown.’”

According to polling averages compiled by stats guru Nate Silver, 44.2% of Americans currently approve of Trump, while 52.1% disapprove, putting his net approval at -7.8. Not exactly glowing, but it’s reportedly a slight improvement from last week. That small bump matters, especially during a shutdown that’s seen thousands of federal workers laid off or furloughed.

Poll shows Trump facing less blame for shutdown than in 2018–2019

Enten also dove into the blame game between the two parties, and it seems Trump is taking a lot less heat than he did last time around.

Only 48% of Americans blame Trump “a great deal” for the current shutdown, compared to 61% during the first-term fiasco, according to the AP-NORC Center.

“It comes down to the blame game. A game I loved to play when I was younger,” Enten joked. “Blame Trump for the shutdown a great deal in 2018 slash 2019,  61%, more than three in five Americans blame Trump a great deal for that particular shutdown.”

“You come over to this side of the screen. Look at this. It’s a different world. It’s a different world. 48% of Americans blame Trump a great deal for this particular shutdown," he explained.

"So it’s more than three and five back in 2018 slash 2019. It’s less than half, a drop of 13 points. Again, it’s no real wonder that Donald Trump at this point looking at the shutdown says, you know, it’s not actually harming me politically in large part because he’s getting less of the blame and he’s doing things differently during this shutdown," Enten added.

Trump and JD Vance accuse Chuck Schumer of bowing to far-left amid shutdown

Of course, this isn’t Trump’s first rodeo. Back in 2019, the then-president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government if he didn’t get his border wall funding. The result was a record-breaking 35-day shutdown, the longest in US history.

Now, it’s the Democrats pulling the trigger. Nearly every Democrat voted to shut the government down on October 1, demanding that an extension of Biden-era Obamacare subsidies be added to the Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR).

Only a handful broke ranks. Sens John Fetterman (D-Pa), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev), and independent Sen Angus King (who caucuses with the Democrats) all voted to keep the government open.

Meanwhile, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are calling out Schumer for bowing to the far-left. The duo insisted the Senate Majority Leader is “scared stiff” of a primary challenge from Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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