CNN’s chief data analyst says President Donald Trump’s positive immigration polling emboldened him to send federal troops to Los Angeles to quell protests.
Harry Enten told CNN News Central host John Berman that Trump was “begging for a fight” with top California officials, including Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, because he knows Americans approve of his approach to immigration.
“This is Trump’s net approval rating on immigration,” Enten said on Monday. “It’s gone up like a rocket now versus eight years ago during Trump’s first term.”
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Enten revealed that Trump’s net approval rating on the issue was at plus 1 percent, indicating Americans approved of how he has handled immigration.
The shift marked a drastic increase from his negative 21 percent rating during his first term, making immigration Trump’s largest shift on an issue compared to his first term, Enten said.
“Trump is begging for a fight on this because he knows what he’s doing so far is working with the American electorate,” Enten said.
Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members to L.A. over the weekend to respond to massive, and at times violent, protests over immigration raids throughout the city. Democratic leaders criticized the decision, with Newsom accusing Trump of trying to “manufacture a crisis.”
“Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County—not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis,“ Newsom wrote in an X post. “He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control.”
But Trump has no reason to take the Democrats’ concerns seriously, Enten said, as Americans largely don’t approve of how Democrats have tackled immigration-related issues.
“The American electorate believed that the Democrats don’t have a clue on the issue of immigration,” Enten said. “I mean, you could just take it here closer to trust more on immigration, Democrats versus Republicans, got three different polls for you across the board. They all tell the same story: Republicans lead on the issue of immigration.”
“The American public is with Donald Trump, and to a much greater extent than they were in term number one,” Enten added.
Trump leaned into the chaos surrounding the riots—and his controversial decision to militarize law enforcement efforts—in a Truth Social post on Monday: “Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!”
