Trump Has Remade The Electorate, and CNN Can't Even

It’s not been good times for CNN. Earlier this month, the network’s chief data analyst had to admit that Donald Trump has been on an epic winning streak — particularly with his cabinet nominees.

“Donald Trump, simply put, is winning,” Harry Enten admitted earlier this month. “Only one pick so far has been withdrawn or rejected, and that looks like it's going to hold through the rest of this. We'll have to wait and see. But the bottom line is Trump's picks have been doing better than the average in terms of getting through the United States Senate, simply put, in a word: he’s winning.”

And now he had to make what is probably the most painful admission of all: that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have significantly altered the political landscape of the United States by shifting the balance of party identification.

"Donald Trump and the Republican Party has [sic] changed the electorate," Enten began, highlighting the changes in voter affiliation over recent years. "What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at party identification. Democrats versus Republicans."

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Enten pointed out the historical data, saying, "You go back to 2017, five points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans. You go to 2021 when Joe Biden was starting out. Look at that. Six points more of the electorate was Democrats than Republicans." 

However, he noted a significant shift that has emerged this month: "But look at what's happened in February of 2025. Look at this. Republicans. There are more Republicans in the electorate than there are Democrats. Republican plus two."

He further explained the transformation, stating, "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 continued, “And so when you combine that with the fact that Republicans are really, really behind Donald Trump, all of a 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 number one."

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Enten concluded his analysis by connecting these shifts to Trump's political standing. "And so when you combine that with the fact that Republicans are really, really behind Donald Trump, all of a 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 number one." 

He ended with a cultural reference: "As I said at the beginning, he's copying Frank Sinatra, doing it my way."

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

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 19, 2025

CNN also got a delicious dose of reality when pollster Frank Luntz told host Brianna Keillar that Americans are all for what Trump is doing.

“They love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action. They wanted results,” Luntz said. “They looked at prices. They looked at affordability. They looked at immigration. And they didn't see anything happening. They still don't like what he says, but they like what he does.”