CNN Data Chief Says Americans Think Trump Is ‘Full Of BS’ With This Renewed Talk

CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten said Tuesday that Donald Trump’s latest push against mail-in voting isn’t connecting with the public and advised him to drop the issue altogether.

Speaking with anchor Kate Bolduan, Enten said polling shows most Americans don’t buy into Trump’s claims that mail-in ballots lead to widespread voter fraud. “They feel that Donald Trump is full of it. Full of BS,” Enten remarked, noting that voters across party lines continue to support early and absentee voting options.

He pointed to Pew Research Center data from 2024 showing that 60% of Americans — including 37% of Republicans — back no-excuse absentee or early voting. Other surveys also show growing acceptance of the 2020 election outcome. In December 2024, 63% of voters said Joe Biden’s victory was legitimate, a three-point increase compared with December 2020. Notably, this included 37% of Trump’s own voters.

Despite these numbers, Trump announced on Truth Social this week that he plans to “lead a movement” to eliminate both mail-in voting and voting machines, even suggesting he could sign an executive order to move the effort forward before the 2026 midterms. However, under the Constitution, voting laws are controlled by individual states, not the presidency, meaning Trump has no direct power to enact such a change.

The renewed attacks came shortly after Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where Trump later told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian president had assured him “you can’t have an honest election with mail-in voting” and claimed no country in the world uses it. In reality, many nations do, and U.S. election experts have repeatedly said the system is both secure and trustworthy.

Enten also highlighted another Pew finding: 75% of voters in 2024 expressed confidence that their mail-in ballots were counted accurately, a sharp increase from 59% in 2020. Among Republicans, confidence in mail-in ballot accuracy jumped dramatically as well — from just 19% in 2020 to 72% in 2024.

“I just think that this whole idea that Donald Trump is trying to push really just doesn’t stay with the American people,” Enten concluded. “He should move on to other issues and shouldn’t be taking political advice from Vladimir Putin, who I can’t remember the last time he won a democratic election.”