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  • 4/16/2025
​The video you provided, titled "Americans are not buying what Trump is selling them": Harry Enten breaks down new poll, features CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten analyzing recent polling data related to Donald Trump's political standing.

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00:00We are getting a clearer picture of how Americans are feeling about President Trump and his economic policy, now 12 weeks into his second term.
00:07CNN chief data analyst Harry Inton is here to run the numbers.
00:11Hello, Harry. Happy Sunday to you.
00:13You as well.
00:14Okay, so where are we with Americans and how they're viewing the economy?
00:19Yeah, so CBS News YouGov poll came out earlier today, and I will just say, I'll put it in stark terms,
00:24I believe this is the worst poll that Donald Trump has received in his second term, and we can go through it, Jessica.
00:30Let's talk about the economy, right?
00:32Think the economy is getting worse.
00:34Back in November, it was 42 percent of Americans.
00:36You don't have to be a genius to follow this timeline.
00:38By February, it was 49 percent.
00:39March, 51 percent.
00:41Look at where we are now, 53 percent.
00:43The clear majority of Americans think the economy is getting worse, and that number is rising.
00:48When Trump, of course, won that second term, it was 42 percent.
00:51Now we're up 11 points.
00:52The clear majority, 53 percent.
00:54This poll, and this number in particular, is no bueno for the president of the United States, Jessica.
01:00And who are they blaming for what they are seeing as an economic downturn?
01:05Yeah, okay.
01:06So, obviously, you had Joe Biden before you had Donald Trump.
01:10And, of course, Donald Trump would say, you know, Joe Biden left us in a horrible state, and I have to help dig us out of it.
01:15All right, so let's take a look here.
01:17More responsible for the state of the economy or the economic state.
01:20In March, CBS News asked about inflation, and 38 percent said it was Joe Biden who was more responsible, compared to 34 percent who said Donald Trump.
01:28Let's jump forward to now, in the month of April.
01:30Look at this number.
01:32Fifty-four percent of Americans say that Donald Trump is more to blame for the state of the economy than Joe Biden.
01:39And Joe Biden's number has fallen from 38 percent to 21 percent.
01:44Donald Trump may try to blame Joe Biden for this, and maybe that was working a month ago in the month of March.
01:50But since the tariff war has begun, it's not working anymore.
01:54Americans are not buying what Donald Trump is selling them.
01:57They believe the clear majority, 54 percent, that Donald Trump is more to blame for the state of the economy at this point than Joe Biden is, Jessica.
02:05That is interesting to see how that evolves just in the last month, really.
02:10How are they viewing tariffs?
02:12Yeah.
02:13OK, so obviously the big thing when it comes to the state of the economy right now for Donald Trump is tariffs.
02:20So let's take a look here.
02:21All right.
02:22The tariff plan, new tariffs on important goods, oppose versus favor.
02:26You go back to January.
02:28Look at this.
02:28Forty-eight percent said they favored these new tariffs, these Donald Trump tariffs, compared to 46 percent who oppose.
02:34Look at where we are now in the CBS News YouGov poll.
02:38A switcheroo, Jessica.
02:39A switcheroo.
02:40The clear majority, 58 percent of Americans oppose these new tariffs, compared to just 42 percent who favor them.
02:48Again, this is part of the picture that we've seen throughout this presentation, right, Jessica?
02:53More and more people are turning against Donald Trump.
02:56Their views of the economy are getting worse.
02:58They are holding Donald Trump responsible.
03:00And when it comes to his signature issue so far in his second term, tariffs, I mean, my goodness gracious, that trend line is ridiculously awful for Trump.
03:09The opposition number from 46 to 58 in the favor from 48 to 42.
03:13Americans have switched on a dime on the economy, on Donald Trump, in large part because of the tariffs, which they increasingly do not like.
03:22And what's their what's the biggest problem with Trump's plan for these people?
03:26Well, I think it's the biggest problem that you hear our analysts say all the time is they don't know what the heck Donald Trump is doing.
03:32It's his approach.
03:33I mean, take a look here.
03:34Trump's approach to tariffs and trade.
03:36That is the way he's going about it.
03:38Just 37 percent of Americans like it.
03:41Look at this number.
03:42Sixty three percent.
03:43Nearly two thirds dislike it.
03:45Among independents, Jessica, it's just 28 percent of independents who like the way that Donald Trump is approaching tariffs and trade.
03:54And that's not much of a surprise because one day Donald Trump is saying one thing.
03:57The next day he's saying another.
03:59One day someone from his administration saying one thing.
04:02The next day that same exact person saying another.
04:04The message, simply put, is unclear and it's the approach more than anything else, Jessica Dean, that the folks in the American public dislike about Donald Trump and his way that he's going about the tariffs and trade policy of the second Trump administration.
04:19Very interesting.
04:20And then overall, how does this affect his approval rating?
04:23Yeah.
04:23OK, so we talk about the economy, right?
04:25But does the economy, the way people people feel about the economy equal the way they feel about Donald Trump overall?
04:30Because if it doesn't, if these two paths don't cross, then these numbers don't mean anything.
04:35Right.
04:35But let's take a look right here.
04:36Donald Trump's net approval rating in early February, according to CBS News.
04:40Look at that.
04:40It was plus six.
04:41Late February, plus two.
04:43March, zero.
04:44Even approval, disapproval.
04:45Look at where we are now.
04:47Minus six points.
04:48He's underwater for the first time in the CBS News YouGov poll, at least in his second term.
04:53Again, it's the trend line that's so important here.
04:56And the trend line and the American people are turning against Donald Trump.
04:59And that's why I said at the beginning, Jessica, that this, in my mind, is the worst poll that Trump has received in his second term so far.
05:06All right.
05:06Harry Enten, as always, with the numbers there.
05:08Thank you so much.
05:09So this week begins with the country and the global economy caught in the grip of uncertainty.
05:15If that sounds familiar, it is.
05:17Since that has clearly become the status quo over the past weeks, head-spinning uncertainty stemming from President Trump's rollout of his tariff plan.
05:26U.S. stock futures, they are on the rise this morning, now after Donald Trump administration carved out exemptions from the president's reciprocal tariffs on key consumer electronics, like smartphones and computers.
05:40But that is where the latest round of uncertainty comes in.
05:43Exemptions announced Friday night were declared not exemptions at all come Sunday morning.
05:48And then by Sunday night, the president himself declared the need for flexibility, saying more targeted tariffs on the semiconductor industry are coming.
05:57The tariffs will be in place in the not distant future, because, as you know, like we did with steel, like we did with automobiles, like we did with aluminum, which are now fully on, we'll be doing that with semiconductors, with chips, and numerous other things.
06:16And that'll take place in the very near future.
06:19You have to show a certain flexibility.
06:22Nobody should be so rigid.
06:23We will.
06:24You have to have a certain flexibility.
06:25The president also indicating that new tariffs are coming on pharmaceuticals.
06:32Economists warning that that could raise, well, one, the cost of prescription drugs for patients, and also worsen what are already serious drug shortages.
06:41This morning, we're getting some new insight, as I mentioned, about how Americans are feeling about all of this right now.
06:46A new CBS YouGov poll finds that 56 percent, 56 percent, now disapprove of how the president is handling the economy.
06:55Also happening today, a not-to-miss meeting in Washington.
06:59The European Union's trade chief expected to sit down with his American counterparts after the United States and the EU paused their reciprocal tariffs on each other for 90 days.
07:08So let the negotiations begin.
07:11CNN's Elena Train joining us right now from the White House.
07:14Good morning, Elena.
07:15Where do things go today?
07:17I mean, you put it exactly the way I'm framing it, Kate, which is just we are kicking off another week of economic uncertainty.
07:24That comes as, of course, President Trump announced last night that he will be imposing new tariffs on the semiconductor industry in the coming days,
07:32really kind of confirming that the so-called reprieve that we saw this White House give China and their electronics industry not really so much of a reprieve.
07:43Now, just to get into this a little bit more on Friday, the White House issued what they called a, quote,
07:46clarification of exemptions, which revealed that consumer electronics would be exempt from the tariffs that they imposed on Beijing.
07:56Now, at first, this did look like another pleasing market come down.
08:00But then yesterday, we really heard the president's top economic advisors kind of muddy the waters,
08:05kind of add more uncertainty and confusion to all of this when they did a tour of the Sunday shows.
08:11Listen to what they said.
08:11The policy is no exemptions, no exclusions.
08:18The policy is in effect.
08:19There were not exclusions.
08:21What he's doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs,
08:25but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.
08:31What happened is it's not really an exception.
08:33That's not even the right word for it.
08:35What happened is this type of supply chain moved from the tariff regime for the global tariff,
08:40the reciprocal tariff, and it moved to the national security tariff regime.
08:46So, Kate, it is an exemption.
08:48It's not an exemption.
08:49It's a clarification, all to say they are continuing to muddy the waters here,
08:53just pushing more confusion around this broader tariff plan.
08:56And as we know, what is true one day is not necessarily true 24 hours later.
09:01We saw that happen last week.
09:02But I think the bottom line here is that where a lot of people were kind of celebrating these exemptions
09:07or these pause on some of these electronic goods, we are now learning that that is a temporary thing
09:12as these more sector-specific semiconductor tariffs are expected to come into play in the near future.
09:18And also, just to take a broader step, to mention that polling, I think this is pretty significant.
09:22The new CBS YouGov polling says that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the economy.
09:28That is up from 52 percent on March 30th and 49 percent on March 2nd,
09:33all to say not the direction that this White House wants those numbers going.

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