Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘Ouch!’: Ex-CNN Analyst Breaks Down Brutal New Poll For Trump

Screenshot/YouTube/Chris Cillizza

NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza on Wednesday said a Tuesday poll by Rasmussen Reports comparing President Donald Trump’s presidency to former President Joe Biden’s would likely upset him.

Rasmussen, a pollster that often polls Trump favorably compared to other pollsters, found that 48% of voters felt Biden was the superior president compared to 40% for Trump, according to Newsweek. Cillizza noted on his YouTube channel that Trump frequently calls Biden America’s worst-ever president and argued the poll would infuriate him.

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“They conduct tons and tons of polling. It is and has long been the pollster that Donald Trump does the best with. His approval rating is usually higher in Rasmussen than it is in any other national poll,” Cillizza said. “And as a result, he cites it a lot of the time. You know, ‘Oh, Rasmussen, they’ve got me at 72% approval,’ whatever. Which is why I think this will doubly sting.”

After reading the results of the poll, Cillizza exclaimed, “Ouch!”

“Like of all the things that will bother him, that will really really bother him. Now I will note that this is not the first poll that has been done recently, a national poll that has shown a result like that,” he said. “YouGov asked the same question. Who’s done a better job as president? Biden 48, Trump 44. Harvard-Harris asked a similar question. Who has done a better job? Biden 51, Trump 49. But it’s the Rasmussen number that will really sting.”

Cillizza noted that Trump has tried to discredit negative polling and asserted that when he touts positive pools, he is often referring to Rasmussen.

“So, it’s going to be hard for him to say that this poll is fake news because this is the poll that he literally talks about and cites all the time,” he said. “And if you think that his favorite poll showing 48% of the public thinks Joe Biden did a better job as president and 40% think Donald Trump did a better job as president, if you don’t think that is going to make Donald Trump angry, if you don’t think he is going to fixate on that, you don’t know Donald Trump very well.”

Rasmussen head pollster Mark Mitchell also told the Daily Caller in December that he met with Trump to warn him Republicans risk losing the 2026 midterm elections if they neglect voter concerns regarding affordability and the economy.

Mitchell noted at the time that his polling found over 62% of voters under 40 believed the economy was “not fair to young people.”

“It was a very Trump-type conversation but it didn’t feel like it was clicking,” Mitchell told the Caller.

Moreover, Trump’s job approval with voters between 18 and 29 was just 25%, while his disapproval was 67%, according to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted from Friday to Monday. The approval rating with this demographic was a record-low for the president, according to Newsweek.