Is Trump “doing what he promised”? | Weekly roundup for October 12, 2025

And what does that even mean? Also this week: Shutdown polls; Left-wing populism; Low favorability ratings for all U.S. leaders; Judges' concerns about Trump; + more!

Dear readers,

I don’t normally devote the lead slot in this weekly roundup just to disagreeing with someone’s analysis, but I’m going to make an exception this week. U.S. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently shared a clip by CNN’s Chief Data Reporter Harry Enten claiming Trump is “doing what he promised” and “might as well be called Steady Eddie” in the eyes of the public. In other words, Enten is arguing that public opinion about Trump has not changed since 2024, and later implies he could win again if a hypothetical do-over happened today (I have written about this suggestion in the past).

On Thursday, I posted a short note about why I think Enten’s analysis is wrong/misleading. Given this is getting some traction (The White House put out a press release featuring the clip), I feel I should formulate my thoughts in full.

After the lead note, stick around for plenty of links to other data-driven politics stories published in the last week. On deck at Strength In Numbers this week: …