CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten drew an unlikely comparison between President Donald Trump and the Little Mermaid on Thursday, as new polling data revealed overwhelming public opposition to the president's tariff policies.

The remark followed Trump's decision to impose 50 percent tariffs on most Canadian goods, which the 80-year-old framed as retaliation for what he described as unfair discrimination against American autos, alcohol, and dairy products. The move came despite a Supreme Court ruling in February that struck down the majority of the tariffs he had imposed the previous year.

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, and they often become politically sensitive when businesses and consumers see higher costs or when trading partners respond with their own measures. The Canada move carries added weight because the two countries are deeply linked through cross-border supply chains, including in autos, agriculture, and consumer goods.

Appearing on "CNN News Central," Enten said Trump's trade wars have remained deeply unpopular both domestically and internationally.

"I feel like I'm in bizarro world, okay, because the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and hope for a different result," Enten said. "That is just, simply put, not been the case with President Trump in terms of the train has left the station and the American people have spoken. They hate, hate, hate these new tariffs."

Enten highlighted a dramatic shift in public opinion since Trump's November 2024 re-election. At that time, 52 percent of Americans supported new tariffs on imported goods, while 48 percent opposed them. Those figures have since reversed sharply.

"Then we entered the real world in tariffs, and Americans saw the effects of them," Enten said. "What happened to the opposition to new tariffs, up like a rocket – we're talking 63 percent of Americans now oppose the idea of new tariffs, compared to just 37 percent who favor it."

"The American people have seen what tariffs have done to the economy, and they simply do not like it," he added. "And have turned against the president of the United States who, as I said, it feels like bizarro world because from a political standpoint, it is absolutely insanity. They keep trying to do something that the American people clearly, very much do not like."

Enten noted that the trade war Trump launched last year set his poll numbers on a downward trajectory from which they have yet to recover.

"The tariffs were what set Donald Trump off on a pathway to nowhere, on a pathway to a presidency that is a dead end," Enten said. "Take a look at this – Trump's negative net approval rating every single poll since March 29, 2025, that is over a year ago. In fact, days in a row, it's 482 days in which every single poll that meets CNN standards for publication, Donald Trump has had a negative net approval rating."

That sustained polling weakness matters because trade policy has been a defining part of Trump's economic agenda, and Enten's analysis framed tariffs not as a temporary controversy but as an issue that has remained consistently unpopular across CNN's polling standards.

Trump and his tariff policies are equally unpopular abroad, Enten argued.

"Trump has been underwater so long on tariffs both here and abroad that the bottom line is this," he said. "It's almost like he is the Little Mermaid. He just doesn't even come up for air anymore!"

Source: YouTube