President Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland is the “worst polling issue” for him, according to CNN data chief Harry Enten.
Trump has repeatedly brought up his desire to make Greenland a part of the U.S., arguing that the island territory is needed for national security reasons. During his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump also said he would not use military force to invade Greenland after previously declining to rule it out.
But Enten said on Wednesday that Trump’s idea to acquire Greenland is the “most unpopular thing he could do.” He suggested that Trump was trying to distract Americans from the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case with his Greenland rhetoric.
He said search interest has shifted dramatically: fewer people are searching for the Epstein files while more are searching for Greenland.
“The President of the United States didn’t like the focus on the Epstein files. We’re going to change the subject and we’re going to go over to Greenland. And from that perspective it’s worked,” he said, noting that Google searches for the Epstein files have dropped 72% while searches for Greenland are up 1,600%.
“So if the idea was to distract from the Epstein files and focus the American people on something else, it has been a success by that metric,” he added.
Enten said that talk of acquiring Greenland is a “bad idea politically speaking.” He said that buying Greenland is more unpopular than Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, which has a net approval rating of -38 percentage points.
“Trump’s net approval rating on the Epstein files, look at that, just absolutely awful. Thirty-eight points below water. But any try to buy Greenland is somehow even more unpopular. Look at this. It’s 40 points below water,” Enten said.
“There is barely an issue out there that’s worse for Donald Trump than the Epstein files. But any attempts to buy Greenland or use military force on Greenland, which even polls worse than this, is one of them. It is arguably the most unpopular thing that Donald Trump can try to do is mess with Greenland,” he added.
Trump has toyed with the idea of acquiring Greenland for the U.S. since his first term and has repeatedly brought up the idea during his second term. His renewed interest in Greenland came days after the U.S. launched a military operation in Venezuela to remove leader Nicolás Maduro from power.
Enten also noted that the issue of Greenland will not help Trump’s approval ratings. He said that at this point in a president’s second term, Trump has the lowest net approval rating compared to other presidents who served two terms.
“Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush. Donald Trump is below all of them. The only person who is even lower than Donald Trump when it comes to his net approval rating at this point into term number two is Richard Nixon,” Enten said.
“And any comparison when you are into term number two and an approval rating that if you’re anywhere close, as he’s the only one lower, that is not a comparison that you want on your dial,” he said.
