Fresh polling data has revealed a significant slump in Donald Trump's approval ratings, prompting a prominent CNN analyst to draw an unflattering comparison with a perennially struggling American football team.
"Underwater Like the New Jersey Jets"
During a segment on Thursday 15 January 2026, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted the president's dismal numbers. Pointing to four recent polls showing Trump's net approval rating deep in negative territory—with differentials in the high teens—Enten exclaimed, "Negative! Negative! Negative! Negative!"
He then delivered the pointed analogy: "Trump is underwater like the New Jersey Jets!" The Jets, an NFL franchise associated with New York but based in New Jersey, have not enjoyed a winning season in over a decade. Host John Berman added to the jest, noting, "I was gonna make a Jets joke but there are too many and not enough time," referencing the team's poor 3-and-14 record for the season.
Broad Discontent on Key Issues
When asked which issues President Trump was handling well, Enten's response was blunt: "None of them really. He's doing poorly on all of them." This assessment is backed by concrete data. A recent AP-NORC poll found that 47% of respondents, the largest share, believed Trump was focused on the wrong priorities.
More critically for the Republican party's prospects in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, 53% of those polled felt the US economy was somewhat worse since Trump took office. This economic discontent is a major vulnerability, given the president's promised manufacturing renaissance has failed to materialise. Despite the imposition of worldwide tariffs intended to boost US manufacturing, sector jobs actually declined throughout the previous year.
Grim Outlook for the GOP in 2026
The consistently poor polling presents a severe challenge for the Republican party. Analysts suggest that, faced with these indicators, Republicans are expected to lose control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. There are growing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration may attempt to interfere with election results to retain influence. These fears are fuelled by previous actions, including unusual mid-decade redistricting efforts and the deployment of armed federal agents to predominantly Democratic cities.
Trump's unpopularity is not a new phenomenon. While some aggregators showed a brief, slim majority approval in January 2025, his support has largely been in the minority and declining throughout his current term. He is now approaching the lowest approval levels seen during his first presidency—a worrying trend, as presidential approval typically erodes over time.
The political landscape suggests that without a tangible economic turnaround, particularly in manufacturing, the president's standing and his party's fortunes are likely to worsen further as the nation moves toward the 2026 electoral contest.
