CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten on Monday spotted how the “lion’s share” of Americans are opposed to President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard to U.S. cities following his vow to send troops to Portland, Oregon.
“The polling says, ‘Uh-uh, you are wrong, Mr. President,’” said Enten in a segment with CNN’s John Berman.
Enten turned to a CBS News/YouGov poll from earlier this month showing that a majority of Americans (58%) aren’t for such deployments to U.S. cities while 42% support them. He noted that 64% of independents oppose the deployments, as well.
Trump has been sued by the state of Oregon as well as the city of Portland in an effort to block the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
Over the weekend, Trump took to social media to weigh in on “war ravaged” Portland and claimed that the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility was “under siege” while at the center of protests against the administration’s immigration agenda.
The state’s Democratic U.S. senators have since slammed Trump over what they’ve called his “authoritarian takeover” of the city.
Enten, after Berman asked how Trump deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles impacted his polling, highlighted an aggregate of data showing how the president’s net approval rating (percent who approve versus percent who don’t approve) dipped four points overall following the move.
His net approval rating on immigration dropped by seven points, as well.
“There were clear political ramifications for the president of the United States, and they were not good ramifications,” Enten said.
Later in the segment, Enten noted that ICE’s net popularity rating has fallen from zero points in Trump’s first term to -14 in his second.
He pointed to Pew Research Center findings that Americans, when asked for their views of 16 different federal agencies, ranked ICE at 15th in terms of popularity.
“The president may think this is a politically winning issue for him, but the numbers tell a very different story. It’s, in fact, a political loser,” he said.