In a surprising TV moment, CNN data guru Harry Enten called Donald Trump the “most influential president” of the century and revealed how he’s “remaking the United States of America.”
Enten, the network’s chief data analyst, recently talked with anchor Omar Jimenez on CNN Newsroom about Trump’s controversial tariff and immigration policies as well as the flurry of executive orders he has signed in his second term.
Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on April 2, which was dubbed “Liberation Day,” but his tariff policy since then has been anything but predictable.
A baseline 10 percent tariff was imposed on all imported goods on “Liberation Day”, with some countries facing additional reciprocal tariffs. These reciprocal tariffs were quickly suspended as the Trump administration attempted to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.
Throughout this bumpy tariff ride, critics came up with a nickname for Trump: TACO or Trump Always Chickens Out. But Enten told Jimenez, “I don’t think that’s true.”
“I think the theme of this segment is going to be, love it, like it, lump it, Trump’s remaking the United States of America,” Enten said.
The data guru said the effective tariff rate is at 18 percent, which is up from two percent last year and the highest since the 1930s.
“I can’t think of a more influential president during this century, and it starts here with tariffs. He said he was going to raise tariffs, and despite the claims otherwise, he is in fact doing that,” Enten said.
The CNN segment came after the Trump administration announced Thursday the 10 percent universal tariffs would remain in place but would only apply to countries where the U.S. exports more than it imports. Most counties face this levy, according to a senior administration official who spoke to CNN.
Countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit now face a 15 percent tariff. Some nations, which the senior official said had some of the highest trade deficits with the U.S., were hit with even higher levies.
Enten then jumped into immigration statistics under Trump: “How about net migration in the United States? Get this, it’s down. It’s gonna be down at least 60 percent.”
“We may be dealing with, get this, negative net migration to the United States in 2025. That would be the first time there is negative net migration in this country in at least 50 years. We’re talking about down from 2.8 million in 2024,” Enten said.
He continued: “And that is a big reason why that I’m saying that Trump, at least in my mind, is the most influential president certainly this century and probably dating a good back chunk into the 20th century as well.”
The data guru also talked about the 180 executive orders Trump has signed this year.
“You have to go all the way back to the FDR administration once again to find a year in which there were as many executive orders signed as we have this year. To give you an idea, [former President Joe] Biden, during his first year, signed 77. That’s the entire year. We’re only a little bit more than halfway through this year,” Enten said.
