President Donald Trump's approval numbers are sitting at historically low levels, and CNN analyst Harry Enten says gas prices are a central reason — a dynamic he warns should leave Republicans terrified this Halloween as angry Americans surge toward Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

The stakes he describes run through the House of Representatives, where every seat is on the ballot this fall and where the swing districts anchoring Enten's data will help determine which party controls the chamber — and with it, the president's room to maneuver in the second half of his term.

Appearing Tuesday night with CNN anchor Boris Sanchez, Enten framed the president's standing in stark terms.

"You know what I feel like we're dealing with Bizarro Babe Ruth. That's what we're dealing with because President Trump keeps breaking records — but in the wrong way, the wrong direction," Enten said.

"I want you to take a look at the worst net approval rating on gas prices going into a midterm election this century," he continued. "Who holds it? It's Donald John Trump: 49 points underwater. That's deep under the oil fields. My goodness gracious. No other president is even close, Boris. I mean, the closest one is about 20 points, has a 20-point higher net approval rating. Donald Trump 49 points underwater setting records. You simply put, do not want to be setting."

Net approval subtracts the share of Americans who disapprove from the share who approve, so Enten's 49-point figure means disapprovers outnumber approvers on the issue by that margin. Enten said Americans are comparing what it costs to fill up their tanks today with prices at the beginning of the year — before Trump's unilateral attack on Iran, which throttled oil leaving the Middle East.

"Your wallets ain't lying," he said. "The 2026 gas prices from the beginning of the year to now. Look at this up like a rocket up 51 percent. I went back and found every single midterm year I possibly could. And this 51 percent rise is higher than any midterm year dating back at least half a century — and none of the other midterm years were particularly close. That is why Trump is doing so poorly on gas prices. It is because people, simply put, are paying a lot more at the pump than they did just at the beginning of the year."

The immediacy is the point, in his telling: pump prices are a cost drivers confront on their own receipts each week rather than through polling abstractions, which he argued is precisely what has dragged the president's standing on the issue down.

Enten warned that Republican congressional candidates should not expect to escape the president's unpopularity on the issue, saying the political "splash damage" is burning everyone around Trump. Pointing to numbers from Cook, he described the outlook for the GOP as bleak.

"It's reality check time, Boris. It's reality check time," Enten said.

"Dems biggest issue in the swing house districts. It's this one: It's gas and energy prices," he told Sanchez. "Democrats lead by 12 points on this issue. Among Independents, the lead that they have is more than double it. So Republicans should definitely be scared as we near Halloween when it comes to gas and energy prices and how that could affect their chances of winning just a week from now." Whether the leads Enten cited hold through Election Day will be settled when votes are counted a week from now.