CNN’s Harry Enten Says Americans Giving Trump ‘The Benefit Of The Doubt’ On His Handling Of Ukraine War

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Monday that Americans are responding positively to President Donald Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine War.

Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imploded in the Oval Office on Friday after the Ukrainian president accused the U.S. of not truly “engaging in diplomacy,” leading to a verbal blowout between the two leaders and Vice President J.D. Vance. While Democrats and European leaders have harshly criticized Trump for the incident, Enten said the American people are giving Trump the “benefit of the doubt” and largely prefer his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war in comparison to former President Joe Biden.

“I think sometimes we get a little too complicated in our questions. So I think the easiest way we can kind of just ask this is, ‘do Americans like the way that Trump is handling his job in comparison to how they felt about Joe Biden,” Enten said. “So this is the net approval rating. You look at Joe Biden back in 2024, he was 22 points under water, holy cow. You look at Donald Trump, it’s just a different planet entirely, I mean, the gulf between these two is wider between the Gulf of America and the Gulf of Mexico depending on what side of the aisle we stand on. is at +2. So look, at this particular point, Americans are giving Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, he’s doing considerably better than Joe Biden was doing on handling the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

“So on this simple question, Americans are saying ‘okay, Donald Trump’s doing alright on this,’” Enten continued.

WATCH:

📺 Embedded media — coming soon

A narrow majority of Americans, 50%, want a quick end to the war even if Russia captured Ukraine as of Dec, 2024, which jumped from 31% in Aug. 2022, and are beginning to view Russia in a more friendly light, according