Canada more popular than Donald Trump in the U.S., CNN analyst declares
While the White House and loyal members of his administration will swear to Donald Trump’s popularity among the American people, a CNN analysis of polling data claims that U.S. citizens actually like Canada more.
Alongside host Sara Sidner on Monday, chief data analyst Harry Enten said the U.S. president has a net popularity rating of -10, whereas Canada’s is at +49, a difference of nearly 60 points.
“When you pick on Canada as the United States president, you are picking on a country that the American people adore,” Enten said.
“Pretty much every single time, among most Americans, Americans will choose Canada over Donald Trump.”
The last U.S. president to record a rating higher than Canada’s current, he added, was George W. Bush in the early 2000s.
Re: tariffs on Canada... America has shifted more against them than any other major Trump policy.Meanwhile, Canada (+49 pt net favorable) is far more popular than Trump (-10 pt approve) in the USA.Canadians who see USA as a threat/enemy has jumped from 7% in 2023 to 48% now! pic.twitter.com/z6RiyvRv2w
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) October 27, 2025
To come up with his figures, Enten relied on his own aggregation of data from a pair of 2025 Pew Research Centre surveys that explored Americans’ net favourable opinion of Canada and Trump’s net approval rating.
The first , released in June and based on polling of 3,605 Americans conducted in the spring, found that 74 percent held favourable views of Canada, while 25 percent viewed the country unfavourably. The rest had no opinion or refused to answer.
(Canadians were also polled and 64 per cent reported an unfavourable view of the U.S., up 23 points since the same time in 2024 and eclipsing the previous highwater mark of 62 per cent from 2020 when Trump was last in office. Both are the highest percentages since data was first recorded in 2002.)
The second was an early Aug. 14 survey of 3,554 Americans that put Trump’s approval rating at 38 per cent and his disapproval at 60.
The roughly three-minute segment began with Sidner asking the data specialist about U.S. sentiment towards the Trump administration’s use of tariffs on goods from other countries.
Citing data from a pair of CBS News surveys carried out by YouGov, Enten said, “Americans have moved more against tariffs than any other major Trump policy that he’s been pushing during the second term.”
Enten, using a survey of 2,232 Americans last November , noted 52 per cent favoured the idea of tariffs on imported goods. That number has since fallen to 40 per cent, he reported.
He was referencing a 2,441-person survey this October in which 60 per cent said the Trump administration is too focused on tariffs.
“If I were advising President Donald John Trump when it comes to his policies, I’d say step off the tariffs, at least from a political point of view, because the bottom line is it doesn’t sell with the American people,” Enten said.
Enten also remarked that only 36 per cent of Americans support new tariffs on Canada, but that figure comes from an April poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Reuters.
His analysis comes as Canada-U.S. trade relations are particularly fraught in the wake of an Ontario anti-tariff ad campaign that ultimately led to Trump calling off negotiations with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ottawa. He also called for an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian imports, though no further details have been released regarding the timing or the affected goods.
Enten also addressed how Canadian attitudes towards the U.S. have shifted over the past two years, using data from Angus Reid surveys asking respondents whether they see the neighbouring country as a friend or foe.
In October 2023 , just seven per cent of 1,622 Canadian adults polled would have advised Ottawa to approach the U.S. as an enemy or potential threat. Most (48 per cent) viewed the nation under former president Joe Biden as a valued partner.
A similar survey of 1,700 this October , however, found 46 per cent are now likely to view the U.S. as an enemy or potential threat, and a further 24 per cent urged the federal government to tread cautiously.
National Post has contacted CNN for more information regarding Enten’s aggregate.
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