CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten said on Monday that the government shutdown is not harming President Donald Trump’s popularity.
Twenty days into the shutdown, Trump’s net approval rating stands at +1 points and 48% of Americans blame him for the shutdown, Enten said. These numbers indicate that Trump is taking a significantly lesser hit politically than when the government shut down during his first term in 2018.
“This shutdown hasn’t eaten into Donald Trump’s support at all,” Enten 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.’” (RELATED: Republican Confronts Hakeem Jeffries To His Face Over Shutdown, Heated Argument Ensues)
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When the government shut down in 2018 and into 2019, the president’s net approval rating amounted to -3 points, according to Enten’s aggregate reporting. In contrast to the current 48% of blame, 61% percent of Americans blamed Trump for the first shutdown in 2018 and 2019, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll.
“It comes down to the blame game. A game I loved to play when I was younger. Blame Trump for the shutdown a great deal in 2018 slash 2019, 61% more than three and five Americans blame Trump a great deal for that particular shutdown,” Enten said. “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.”
“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 continued.
Trump told then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2019 that he would be “proud” to shut the government down if he did not receive funding for border security. The government then shut down for 35 days, the longest in U.S. history.
Almost every Democrat voted to shut the government down on Oct. 1 over their demands that an extension to a Biden-era Obamacare subsidy be added to the Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) in exchange for their support. Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and independent Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, voted to keep the government open.
Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance stated that Schumer is caving to the far-left wing of his party because he is afraid of a primary face-off with Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins when she asked if the far-left congresswoman was planning on challenging Schumer for his seat.
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