Uh-Oh: CNN Poll Says Shutdown Is Not Playing Well For Dems, And Trump’s Doing Just Fine

The latest CNN poll suggests that despite their attempts to spin a very different narrative, Democrats are not coming off as the winners as the government shutdown drags on — and President Donald Trump is not losing any ground at all.

CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten broke down the details alongside anchor John Berman, saying that there was a world of difference between the way voters viewed the current shutdown compared to how they’d viewed the 35-day shutdown – stretching from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019 — during President Trump’s first term.

WATCH:

This shutdown is a different world for Trump than the 2018-19 shutdown. He’s in a much better spot.

His net approval is up slightly during this shutdown vs. dropping during 2018-19.

Why? The % who blame him a great deal for the shutdown is down significantly now vs. 2018-19. pic.twitter.com/WHEqHaqo4M

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 20, 2025

“Turns out shutdowns are different the second time around when it comes to Donald Trump,” Enten declared. “Take a look here: you know, we speak about Donald Trump, shutdowns, net approval rating – we’re talking 20 days into it, in 2018 slash 2019, Donald Trump’s net approval rating was already falling. The shutdown was eating into his popular support, it was down three points already at this particular point and would fall considerably more, it was very much on the decline.”

Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now.

That’s not the case 20 days into the current shutdown, Enten continued: “This shutdown hasn’t eaten into Donald Trump’s support at all! His net approval rating is actually up a point, in terms of his popular support. So the bottom line is this: the first shutdown during Trump’s first term, 2018-2019, was hurting Donald Trump. This one is not hurting him at all.”

“There’s no real reason Donald Trump might say, at least when it comes to popular support, ‘I want to get out of this shutdown.'”

When Berman asked about the blame for the shutdown — and who might shoulder most of it — the numbers reflected a similar shift: fewer than half of those surveyed (48%) blame President Trump for the current shutdown compared to the 61% who blamed him in 2018.

“It’s a different world,” he said.