Trump Faces 72% Disapproval In Polling As On-Air Critic Summarises Presidency In One Word: 'Disaster'

Donald Trump is posting the worst inflation disapproval rating of any US president at this stage of their presidency, outpacing both Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, according to a new CNN poll that sent the network's chief data analyst on air to declare the figures a 'disaster.'

The CNN/SSRS survey, conducted between 26 and 30 March 2026 on a random national sample of 1,201 adults, found Trump's approval rating on the economy at 31%, an all-time low for him across both presidential terms.

On inflation specifically, 72% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of rising prices, putting him below Carter, who sat at 66% at a comparable point in 1978, and Biden, who averaged 68%.

Enten's On-Air Verdict and the Inflation Numbers Behind It

The segment opened with anchor John Berman citing Trump's record-low 31% approval rating on the economy, which he described as something that 'only begins to tell the story.' Enten then walked viewers through what he called the 'highest disapprovals on inflation about this time in a presidency,' placing Trump's figures against the two presidents most historically associated with inflation crises.

'Whenever you have Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on the board and you're matching them or slightly exceeding them when it comes to inflation, you know it's bad,' Enten said. 'Donald Trump, even worse than they are. So you see it here, and the one word is, or phrase I might say is, oh my goodness gracious, what a disaster.'

The inflation figure of 72% disapproval represents a sharp deterioration from earlier in Trump's second term. A CNN/SSRS poll from 17-24 April 2025, the first in this series to test all three issues together, showed Trump at 35% approval and 64% disapproval on inflation, a net of minus 29 points.

By late March 2026, that net had worsened to minus 45 points, the weakest figure recorded in this polling series.

Gas Prices, the Iran War, and Trump's Record 76% Disapproval

Inflation is not the only number troubling the White House. Trump's disapproval rating on gas prices hit 76% in the same CNN poll, a figure Enten described as historically unprecedented. Biden's worst recorded disapproval on fuel costs was 72%, reached during the post-pandemic energy spike when petrol prices peaked nationally at an average of $5 per gallon. At the time of this poll, the US national average sat at $4.06 per gallon, according to data cited on air, the highest since June 2022.

The rapid acceleration of fuel costs is directly linked to the Trump administration's military engagement with Iran. As reported by The New Republic, the US war with Iran has disrupted global energy trade through the Strait of Hormuz, driving oil prices sharply higher within weeks.

More than two-thirds of Americans, according to the CNN poll, disapproved of Trump's handling of gas prices as a result. 'It's like a pancake tower, and you're just reaching the top, and this is not a tower you want to climb,' Enten said on air.

On foreign affairs broadly, the same survey found 64% disapproving of Trump's handling of international issues, producing a net rating of minus 28 points. The CNN polling tracker shows this represents a sustained downward trend across all three measured policy areas since Trump's second term began, with the rate of decline accelerating after the onset of the Iran conflict in late February 2026.

Midterm Stakes and the Political Cost of Economic Disapproval

The trajectory of these numbers matters beyond daily approval ratings because November 2026 midterm elections are approaching. Morning Consult's state-level tracking, cited by Factually.co, shows net negative approval in several 2024 swing states, with Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina all posting disapproval in the low-to-mid fifties. That pattern, if it holds through to polling day, creates real exposure for Republican candidates defending competitive seats in the House.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in late 2025 found Trump's approval among Americans earning under £38,400 ($50,000) per year had fallen to 31%, with 65% disapproving, a demographic split that concerns Republican strategists given how central working-class support was to his 2024 coalition. The same Reuters/Ipsos survey found only 20% of Americans believed the US was on the right track on inflation, and only 27% felt the same about jobs.

Prediction markets add weight to the concern. Enten noted on air that Kalshi was giving a 64% probability to inflation exceeding 4% year-over-year at some point in 2026. Inflation has not breached that threshold since 2023, the year Trump and Republicans made it the central attack line against Biden. The political irony was not lost on Enten. 'Donald Trump was elected to fix the economy,' he said in a separate CNN appearance cited by The Daily Beast. 'It was a strength for him during his first term, but at this point, it is an anchor on him.'

For a president who ran on the economy and won, a 72% disapproval rating on the issue that defined his campaign is the kind of number that rewrites political legacies.