The national debt crossed $40 trillion just as President Donald Trump was giving reporters a tour of ongoing White House renovation projects, and CNN's Harry Enten said the timing couldn't be worse.
Enten's numbers show voters are deeply unhappy with Trump's focus on the White House building projects. Net satisfaction sits 33 points underwater overall – showing dissatisfaction outweighs satisfaction by a wide margin.
"Look, we got wannabe I.M. Pei over here trying to build up all of this stuff going on here, and the federal debt," Enten said. "Adios, amigos – goodbye, see you later – north of $40 trillion, and Americans are p---ed off. They're p---ed off, and it's pretty clear."
Among independents, the group Enten calls the "center of the electorate," the number craters to 52 points underwater, and Enten can't imagine Republicans are happy.
"You think those congressional Republicans like Trump talking about these D.C. building projects?" he said. "Absolutely not, because these are the types of numbers that make election nights go very, very wrong."
The frustration isn't just about the renovations themselves. Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, say the Trump administration is focusing too much on the D.C. building projects. Meanwhile, 78 percent, roughly four in five, say the administration is focusing too little on the issue that fueled Trump's re-election in the first place.
Enten connected that gap directly to Trump's approval numbers on inflation, which he noted are historically low, making Trump the only president to cross the negative-50-point net approval threshold on the issue.
"You can't really get worse than that," he said.
Compounding the problem, Enten pointed to rising public skepticism about government spending generally. The share of Americans who say most government spending is wasteful and inefficient has jumped to 75 percent this year, up from 57 percent a little over a year ago, a sign that voters increasingly view Trump's priorities, from renovations to the ballooning debt, as evidence of misplaced focus rather than fiscal discipline.
"Donald Trump, the president of the United States, is the one out showing reporters the drive," said CNN's John Berman, "when Democrats may very well be saying, 'Thank you very much.'"
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