Harry Enten gobsmacked that GOP trouncing Dems on economy

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Monday during a “CNN News Central” appearance that Democrats still trailed the GOP on the economy, despite a rough ride for the stock market.

Republicans held a eight-point lead on the economy over Democrats in a CNN/SSRS poll released Sunday, a slight drop from an 11-point lead in November 2023. Enten expressed astonishment at the persistent GOP lead on the issue.

“The first four months of the Donald Trump presidency, that you’d expect that Democrats would have this massive lead on the economy. It ain’t so. It ain’t so,” Enten told “CNN News Central co-host Kate Bolduan. “The party that is closest to your economic views in November of 2023, it was the Republicans by 11 points. Now it’s still within that range, still within that margin of error plus eight-point advantage for the Republican Party.”

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“How is that possible, Democrats? How is that possible?” Enten asked. “After all the recession fears, after the stock market’s been doing all of this, after all the tariffs that Americans are against, and Republicans still hold an eight-point lead on the economy. Are you kidding me?”

Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs via an April 9 post on Truth Social that also announced substantial increases on tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, a week after he initially unveiled the duties on imports, citing the fact many countries offered to discuss ways to address the trade balance. Trump later announced a reduction on tariffs on Chinese goods after negotiations in Geneva led by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

“If it was just this one CNN poll, that would be one thing. But take a look at Reuters/Ipsos. What do we see here? Party with a better economic plan. Well in May of 2024, just before Donald Trump was reelected president, Republicans had a nine-point advantage,” Enten told Bolduan. “Look at where we are now, in May of 2025. The advantage actually went up by three points. Now Republicans have a 12-point advantage when it comes to the party with a better economic plan.”

“And again, this is after months of economic uncertainty in which the stock market’s been going bonkers, in which the tariff wars that Americans are against have been going on,” Enten continued. “And yet, despite all of that, the Democrats are down by 12 points on theX economy.”

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) hit a four-decade high of 9% in June 2022, after then-President Joe Biden signed multiple spending initiatives into law, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, despite warnings that it could cause inflation to go up. While Biden was in office, prices shot up by over 20%.

Enten said the Republicans had also pulled even with Democrats in another key polling question.

“In our latest CNN poll among registered voters, which is the party of the middle class, it is tied,” Enten told Bolduan. “This, I think, speaks to Democratic ills more than anything else. They have traditionally been the party of the middle class. No more. Donald Trump and the Republican Party have taken that mantle away and now a key advantage for Democrats historically has gone adios, amigos.”

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