Trump's Beloved CNN Host Flips on Him

Harry Enten spent Labor Day morning on CNN explaining, slide by slide, how far President Donald Trump had fallen with the workers who helped send him back to the White House. The message was rough for the president. The messenger made it sting. Days earlier, Trump had gone on Truth Social and called Enten the best person at the network.

On News Central Monday, the network's chief data analyst broke down Trump's economic standing among Americans employed full-time and called it a complete 180. In 2024, that group trusted Trump over Kamala Harris on the economy by 20 points. Trump's net economic approval with those same workers now sits 41 points underwater. Enten added the two into a 61-point reversal and pointed it out on the one day of the year built around American labor, though the figures measure different things: one is a margin over a named opponent, the other an approval rating.

Down Into the Hudson River

"Way down there we go, down into the Hudson River," Enten said as he walked through the drop during his Labor Day segment. "It is not a happy Labor Day indeed for President Trump when it comes to how those who are employed view him on the economy."

The economy was supposed to be Trump's strongest hand. Enten said it had been "a major strength for him back in 2024." That edge is gone, replaced by a deficit deep enough that he reached for the river running past Manhattan to describe it. He had a name for the shift too, calling it "a switcheroo in the wrong direction of 61 points on this Labor Day."

The Job Market Got Bleaker, Too

The job market data was no kinder to the president. In the final quarter of 2024, 54 percent of workers said it was a bad time to find a job. By the second quarter of 2026, that figure had climbed to 72 percent, a rise of 18 points.

The flip side moved just as hard. The share of workers who felt it was a good time to find a quality job fell from 46 percent to 28 percent. "So those who are in the workforce, simply put, do not think it is a good time to find a quality job, and that bad number has only climbed ever higher," Enten said.

Trump Begged CNN Not to Fire Him

The compliment landed on a Saturday. In a Truth Social post, Trump tore into CNN and MSNBC, writing that CNN was in a "DEATH SPIRAL" and that "Literally, nobody is watching either Network!" He wrote off MS NOW, the name MSNBC took in November 2025, as beyond saving.

Then he carved out one exception. "The best person on CNN is Pollster Harry Enten," Trump wrote, before adding a direct order to the network: "Don't fire him!"

He went further and offered CNN a way back. The network "can be turned around with new Leadership and Anchors," he wrote, adding that "a Great Brand can never truly be destroyed!" MSNBC got no such mercy. A man who has spent years calling CNN dead was suddenly its unlikely defender, at least for one employee.

The Poll That Won Trump Over

What earned Enten the praise was a survey he aired days before the meltdown post. It showed 53 percent of Republicans naming Trump as the president they most admire, with 18 percent picking Ronald Reagan and 8 percent choosing Abraham Lincoln.

Trump stretched that into something bigger than the numbers said. He claimed Enten "was willing to show that Donald J. Trump is six times more popular than Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or any other President." The poll only asked Republicans, and while Trump did outpoll Lincoln by more than six to one among them, he led Reagan, the second-place finisher, by about three to one and was never measured against every president who ever lived.

On air, Enten laid it out and seemed to hold back a smirk. "Abraham Lincoln, who by most historic accounts is the greatest president of all-time, but Republicans say that the president they most admire by, what is this, six, seven times as many. Donald John Trump at 53 percent, easily crushing Abe Lincoln at 8 percent," he said. His colleague John Berman joked that the slide might end up printed out on Trump's desk. "He's got Credibility," the president wrote afterward.

Who Harry Enten Actually Is

Enten is 38 and joined CNN from FiveThirtyEight in 2018. His job is to read the polls out loud, and lately most of them have carried grim news for the president.

He has not gone soft on the economic reports either. Enten called Trump's net approval on inflation, 48 points underwater in May, "the ugliest numbers I have ever seen on inflation." A separate CNN poll found 77 percent of Americans believed Trump's policies had raised their cost of living.

Before Labor Day, Enten had also poked at some of the president's pet projects. He showed that the push to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" was flopping, with Google searches for the real name far ahead of Trump's version. He reported that Americans were angry about Trump's Washington renovation work, and he flagged the president's weak standing on gas prices.

A Feud Years in the Making

Trump's warmth toward Enten sits against years of open hostility toward the rest of CNN. He has branded the network "FAKE NEWS," tagged it #FraudNewsCNN, nicknamed anchor Jake Tapper "Fake Tapper," and sparred again and again with Kaitlan Collins over questions he did not want to answer.

The friction has spilled into the president's own events. At an August 17 Oval Office appearance, senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes pressed a follow-up on Trump's claimed contact with North Korea. "Quiet," he told her. "You're very disrespectful in front of this young man, okay?" He went on to call her "a loud, boisterous person" and said, "You're faking news!"

CNN pushed back hard. A network spokesperson said public officials are free to challenge reporting they disagree with, but that personal attacks on journalists for asking questions are beneath the office and inconsistent with the principles of a free press. The network said it stood firmly behind Holmes.

A $110 Billion Deal in the Background

Trump may have a reason beyond flattery to care who keeps a job at CNN. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison signed a deal in February to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, folding CNN into his company. The merger, worth $110 billion including assumed debt, cleared the Justice Department in June before a dozen state attorneys general sued in July and froze it. Trial is set for March.

Ellison has built a close relationship with Trump. That connection adds another read on why the president suddenly has opinions about who gets to stay on the payroll at a network he keeps calling finished.

Not a Happy Labor Day

Trump's endorsement always came with a string attached. He loved one slide and trashed nearly everyone around the analyst who put it on screen. Enten keeps delivering rough polling for the president, and even in the days around the praise he had another set of unflattering numbers on the air.

The Labor Day segment closed the loop. The one analyst Trump asked CNN to keep stood in front of a national audience and documented the exact collapse of the president's support among the workers who carried him in 2024. Trump praised Enten on August 29. By Monday, that same numbers guy had the economy Trump ran on sitting 41 points underwater with full-time workers, and a 61-point swing pointing straight down.