CNN Concedes Donald Trump Has ‘Remade the Electorate,’ Based on Latest Polling

CNN data analyst Harry Enten reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have reshaped the American electorate.

Enten highlighted how party identification has changed in the U.S. over the last three presidential election cycles.

In February 2017, shortly after Trump took office for his first term, Democrats enjoyed a 5 percentage point advantage in party identification among the electorate.

In February 2021, Democrats had gained an additional point following President Joe Biden assuming office, resulting in a net 6-point lead.

However, this month, Republicans showed a 2 percentage point advantage in party ID, meaning a net 8 percentage point shift from February 2021.

CNN: “Donald Trump and the Republicans have re-made the electorate” 🔥 pic.twitter.com/sGR7z7S2P3

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 19, 2025

“So Donald Trump and the Republicans have remade the electorate. They’ve turned some people over from being Democrats or independents to become Republicans. New folks have entered the electorate who are more Republican-leaning,” Enten said.

Trump gained ground in almost every demographic in the 2024 election compared to 2020, with some of his largest gains among Hispanics and younger voters.

Enten also pointed out that Trump is enjoying a net positive approval rating, despite registered Democrats (by a 78 percentage point margin) and even independents (by a net 10 percentage point margin) disapproving of how he’s handling his job.

Republicans support the president by a net 84 percentage points.

Trump’s underwater with indies, but has an overall positive net approval. How?

Trump’s broken the mold by remaking the electorate from +6 Dem in 2021 to +2 GOP now!

Moreover, the GOP base is more behind Trump (+84 pt net approval) than the Dem base is against him (-78 pts). pic.twitter.com/fabfjKYR79

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 19, 2025

“So more Republicans are behind Donald Trump than Democrats are opposed to Donald Trump, and that is lifting him up and giving him that positive net approval rating, despite the fact that he’s losing among Democrats and losing among independents,” Enten explained.

He concluded, “So when you combine that with the fact that Republicans are really, really behind Donald Trump, all the sudden you get a winning recipe, whereby you break the normal rules of politics and give Donald Trump that positive net approval rating when he had pretty much a consistently negative one in term No. 1.”

The political site FiveThirtyEight compilation of polls showed the president’s highest approval rating during his first term was 45.8, and it consistently hovered in the low 40s to upper 30s.

Multiple recent polls show Trump in positive approval territory, including a CBS/YouGov survey published earlier this month finding that 53 percent approve of his handling of the job and 47 percent disapprove. Barack Obama had a 52 percent approval rating in a CBS poll at the same point in his second term.

Second term approval ratings 3 Weeks in Per CBS Poll

Trump 2025: 🟢 Approve 53%
Obama 2013: 🟢 Approve 52% pic.twitter.com/ojXn15umDx

— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) February 16, 2025

Additionally, 70 percent of those surveyed said that Trump was implementing what he promised in the campaign he would do.

The CBS poll was conducted from Feb. 5-7 among 2,175 U.S. adults. The margin of error was +/- 2.5 percent.

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