Trump's Approval Rating Holds Steady
BERMAN: President Trump's approval rating doesn't ever really seem to move. It's been very steady and it's never hit 50 percent, though. Can the economy boost him, therefore, to re-election? One man has been crunching the numbers. Let's get "The Forecast" from CNN's senior politics writer and analyst, Harry Enten.</s>HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: One man with one power.</s>BERMAN: Well, one power, such powerful hands, you broke, completely shattered our screen. So you're sitting at the table with us today.</s>ENTEN: You know -- you know what, it's lovely to be sitting.</s>BERMAN: Yes.</s>ENTEN: It's early in the morning anyway, so I prefer to be sitting. So, you know, let's talk about the president's approval rating, right? In our CNN polls, you go back to January, February 2017, 44 percent. You go then to August of 2018, 44 percent. You look at -- over the last few months, April through June in our polls, 44 percent among registered voters. This has been very, very steady. Now, of course the question is, how does he boost it? So take a look at his economic approval rating versus his overall approval rating among voters. And take a look here, on the economy, 53 percent of voters approve of the job that he's doing, just 44 percent overall. So you say to yourself, OK, this is the pathway. This 9 percent of registered voters who approve of Trump on the economy but disapprove over all, these are the voters that I want.</s>BERMAN: People who approve on the economy but disapprove overall. Who are they?</s>ENTEN: Yes, so this is the real problem here. So take a look at this. This is the partisan makeup of each of these groups. And among the voters who approve of him overall, 88 percent of them are Republicans. But take a look at those who approve of him on the economy but disapprove overall, only 22 percent of them are Republicans versus 66 percent who say they're either Democrat or leaning Democratic. That's not only more Democratic than the approval overall vote, it's the all voters who are just 48 percent Democratic. So this is a very Democratic group. But let's also look at ideology, right, because this is a different way of looking at it. And what do we see here. We see that among that group, look, approval overall, 66 percent are conservative. But just 18 percent approve on the economy, disapprove overall, are conservative. This is a much more moderate group. Fifty-three percent of them are moderate. This is not a group that Trump has been gearing his campaign towards. He's been going red meat, red meat, red meat, but these voters are a lot more moderate.</s>HILL: And another group that's important to look at too is when we look at this based on race, because we know that impacts things.</s>ENTEN: Yes, take a look at this. I think this is so key. So, you know, Trump has been throwing all of this red meat towards the base. He's been making statements that have been racist. Look at this. Approval overall, 79 percent are white. But take a look at approve on the economy, disapprove overall, just 60 percent are white. And look at the African-American subsection of that, 18 percent of those who approve on the economy, but disapprove overall, are black. That's not only considerably larger than the approval overall group which just 2 percent are black. That's actually larger than all voters, who are just 11 percent of African-Americans.</s>BERMAN: So if he's looking to reach voters he has not reach, who might be inclined to approve of him based on their feeling of the economy, you might think then, Harry, he would target black voters, yes?</s>ENTEN: That's -- that's exactly right, he would target black voters and he would stop with this racist statement nonsense that he's been saying because otherwise he's not going to reach these voters. Just a few more things I would point out here. On education, I would point out that these voters are better educated than those who approve overall of him. And, you know, he said, I lovely the poorly educated. He better start liking the well-educated too if he wants to reach some of these voters. And one other thing I'll point out, take a look at the median age. I think this is so key. Look at this, approve overall, 52 years old. That's the median age on that group versus approve on the economy, disapprove overall. They're considerably younger than that group at just 44 years old. That also makes them younger than all voters overall. And let me just point out one -- one last thing. You know, it's back- to-school time. Take a look at this. You know, Atlanta, down at our mothership, they began yesterday on August 12th. The New York City Public Schools begin a little bit less than a month from now. I should just point out, I didn't like school. Thank God I don't have to go back.</s>BERMAN: Did -- now you're telling us. Did you take math or are you just making all these numbers up?</s>ENTEN: No, no, no, I'm not making this up. I never make up numbers on the air with you.</s>HILL: I feel like he's hesitating on that answer.</s>ENTEN: No, I did not like school. Thank God I'm out. I get to be with you two instead on a weekday morning.</s>HILL: And we're glad you're here.</s>BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much. Stepping up, even when the technology wasn't working your way.</s>ENTEN: Well, you raised my game, both of you.</s>BERMAN: We appreciate you being here. All right, one week ago, lawmakers on both sides were calling for actions to fight gun violence after two mass shootings. Congress is in recess for a month. Is anything getting done after all that talk? Is anything getting done? We're going to speak to one lawmaker determined to keep the heat on Congress, coming up.