On today's chart 265K views since yesterday

Hegseth polls worse than pre-midterm Rumsfeld, CNN's Enten says

Harry Enten connects the defense secretary's standing to opposition to the Iran war, then examines the separate weight of inflation on Republicans.

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CNN Story of November 8, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 265,480 views.

You don’t understand how unpopular Hegseth actually is

Things we can learn from the video

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0:00Enten's polling aggregate puts Hegseth's net approval below Trump's.
1:23Hegseth also trails Donald Rumsfeld's net approval before the 2006 midterms.
3:13The displayed polls show greater opposition to the Iran war than to Iraq before the 2006 elections.
4:33Enten highlights Talarico's advantage among Texas voters prioritizing the war, then examines national and rural voting shifts.
7:22Trump's net approval on inflation worsens across the year's polling shown.
10:40Kalshi traders assign a 75% chance of Hegseth being impeached before July 2027, not necessarily removed.

Donald Rumsfeld's standing before the 2006 midterms gives Harry Enten a historical benchmark for Pete Hegseth, and the comparison is unfavorable to the defense secretary.

In CNN's new analysis, Enten puts Hegseth's net approval at minus 29 points, below both Rumsfeld's pre-midterm rating and President Donald Trump's standing. Net approval measures the gap between approval and disapproval, not the share of people who approve.

The segment drew roughly 265,000 views in its first two and a half hours today. Unlike CNN's earlier election breakdowns, this one concentrates on the political pressure surrounding Hegseth as some House Republicans work toward an impeachment vote, according to the broadcaster.

Enten also compares Hegseth with Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi before their firings. His point is that Hegseth's polling is worse than either official's was, although those comparisons do not establish what Trump will do.

The explanation then moves beyond personalities. Enten presents polling showing substantially more opposition to the Iran war before these midterms than to the Iraq war before the 2006 elections. He highlights James Talarico's advantage among Texas Senate voters who prioritized the war, alongside a broader Democratic lead on the national House ballot and shifts among rural voters.

Inflation supplies another part of his account: Trump's net approval on handling prices deteriorates across the year's polling shown on screen. Enten treats war and household costs as overlapping sources of Republican difficulty, rather than making Hegseth the sole explanation for the election result.

The closing section turns from polls to Kalshi's prediction-market odds on impeachment. Those are traders' expectations about a future House action, not a vote already taken or a finding that Hegseth will be removed.

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