Harry Enten: "Whatever he is doing with independents, it ain't working. They despise him at this point!"

[dalton99a]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/just-atrocious-cnn-data-guru-175111031.html

‘Just Atrocious!’ CNN Data Guru Appalled by ‘The Worst 10-Day Period’ of Trump’s Second Term
Jennifer Bowers Bahney
Fri, November 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM CST

...

Enten continued, “Fox, 17 points under water. Marist, 17 points under water. The Reuters Ipsos poll, 22 points under water. And then, taking the cake, the AP-NORC poll, 26 points underwater. When your best poll has you still 14 points underwater, you know it’s truly bad, and it’s as bad as 26 points under water. We’re talking about an average well, well, well under water with the deep blue sea swimming with the fishes.”

“If you think this is bad, what is driving these horrific numbers for Donald Trump?” Enten said. “Well, why don’t we take a look at independents? Trump’s net approval rating with independents back in January, he was close to even. He was at minus four points. Not great, but not terrible.”

“Loo hoo hoo hoo!” Enten exclaimed. “Look at this number! Forty-three points under water with independents in the most recent average of these polls. When you have 43 points under water with independents, you know you’re doing terribly. You can’t win with this. If this holds for next year’s midterm election, wave ‘Adios, amigos, Goodbye, See you later,’ to that House Republican majority and that Senate Republican majority, very much in danger as well.”

Enten summed up, “Whatever he is doing with independents, it ain’t working. They despise him at this point!”

...

[BOSSHOG]

1. Help an old guy out here

UNDER WATER means under 50%? Fox is 17 points under meaning his approval rate is 33%? I might need a scorecard for polls.

[marble falls]

2. Don't mind the mule. Just load the wagon. He's coming down and it won't be over polling.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Underwater means his disapproval number is larger than his approval.

For example, if his approval is 40% and his disapproval is 60%, then he is 20 points "underwater".

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Not Quite

Yes, one has to ge below 50% but underwater means the difference between approve & disapprove us a negative numer.
That would be impossible if approval was 50% or higher.
In most polls there is some percentage of "not sure" or "neutral". So, approve + disapprove does not always add up to 100%.
That pushes down the maximum the "approve" can be.
In the case of the Faux poll, it may be something like 55% disapprove, 38% approve, 7% undecided.
But, the underwater here is 38 - 55 = -17%. (Again, the numbers are just for example.)
For someone just elected 383 days ago, it's pretty dreadful.

[Qutzupalotl]

5. "swimming with the fishes" -- Don't get my hopes up!

[William Seger]

6. I believe most "independents" are simply people who don't pay much attention to politics

... but it's getting to be impossible to ignore the damage #rump is doing.