On Friday morning, CNN’s data guru Harry Enten stood in front of the network’s big board and blinked at a chart that, as he put it, “just pops off the screen.”
The reason: Americans have suddenly stopped naming the economy as their top concern.
A new Gallup poll released this week shows that just 24 percent of Americans now say “the economy” is the most important issue facing the country — a staggering drop from 43 percent in October 2024, the month before the last presidential election.
“This is one of those numbers that makes you do a double take,” Enten told viewers. “We’re talking about a nearly 20-point drop across every political group — Democrats, independents, Republicans. It’s falling through the floor. And that’s surprising, given all the news we’re hearing about inflation, jobs, and tariffs.”
For context, Enten noted that during a typical midterm cycle, around 35 percent of voters name the economy as the top national issue.
That’s what makes this data so extraordinary: Americans are frustrated with the economy — but they’ve stopped prioritizing it.
The shift comes as President Donald Trump faces record-low approval numbers on economic management, with even Fox News polling showing the majority of Americans believe the economy has gotten worse under his leadership.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation ticked up to 3 percent in October — its highest rate since January — despite Trump’s repeated boasts that he has “defeated inflation.” Analysts point to his escalating tariffs, which have driven up grocery and consumer prices, and a sluggish labor market that has cooled wage growth.
Yet the Gallup data suggest that for many Americans, economic hardship has been overshadowed by something deeper: political exhaustion.
When asked to name the single most important problem facing the nation, 28 percent of respondents chose “the government/poor leadership” — more than any other category.
Enten said that shift reveals “a growing sense that Washington itself — not the economy — is broken.”
The data come amid the federal government shutdown, now in its third week, which has left thousands of federal workers unpaid and key agencies shuttered. Unsurprisingly, Congress’s approval rating has cratered to 15 percent, while Trump’s sits at 41 percent, according to the same Gallup poll.
Other non-economic issues are gaining ground as well:
- Immigration: 16 percent (up from 14)
- Healthcare: 6 percent (up from 3)
- Crime and public safety: 4 percent
“People are angry,” Enten summarized. “They’re frustrated by rising costs, but they’re even more frustrated by what they see as dysfunction and chaos in Washington.”
That frustration may explain why Trump’s low economic ratings haven’t triggered the kind of panic they once would have. In Gallup’s words, “The national conversation has shifted from economic anxiety to political disillusionment.”
Still, Enten warned that the data should not be mistaken for optimism.
“If anything,” he said, “it shows how numb Americans have become. Prices are high, growth is slowing, and yet people are so tired of politics that they’re not even talking about it anymore.”
The bottom line: while the economy remains shaky, Americans appear more worried about who’s running the country than how it’s being run.
And as Enten put it with a hint of disbelief:
“When only one in four Americans still lists the economy as their biggest problem — you know something in the system has broken.”
