Data guru floored as he sees Trump's most popular action implode: 'Completely flipped'
CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten was left floored Monday after new polling revealed that voters have “completely flipped” on Trump’s immigration policy, formally among his best-performing acts.
“These numbers have just completely flipped – this was such a strength for the president, the net approval rating on [the] Trump administration's program to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally, it was plus 18 points at the beginning of his presidency,” Enten said. “That is very, very positive, it was one of the most popular things in the Trump administration's agenda.”
Fast forward to January, however, and Trump’s net approval rating on his deportation policy plummeted from plus 18 points to minus 8, according to new CNN polling.
“That's an over 25-point switcheroo in the negative direction,” Enten exclaimed. “Now the program is way, way underwater at minus 8 points. And among independents, it has gone from plus 18 points in the positive all the way down to negative 20 points!”
The new polling also found that 56% of Americans now say Trump is not prioritizing "dangerous criminals,” as his administration said it would in its mass deportations. That's up from 47% in June, and a “big reason why" the public has shifted so decisively against Trump’s immigration policy, Enten said.
Despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s assertion on Sunday that 70% of migrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have “committed or have charges against them on violent crimes,” her own agency’s data shows that only 47% had any criminal convictions. Other analyses suggest the number of arrested migrants with no criminal history to be even higher.
“The Trump administration and Trump in particular has lost the center of the electorate when it comes to a key component of his administration's agenda, and that is to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally,” Enten said. “They think he's taken the eye off the ball.”