Name: Enten: Americans don't trust Trump to run elections
Uploaded: 2026-02-04T17:16:38.000Z
Duration: 10 min 42 s
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With me now, CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Entin.

He is running the numbers on America's faith in the election system.

Harry, do Americans trust Donald Trump when it comes to running the elections?

No, they trust him about as much as they trust him to be modest.

I mean, just take a look at these numbers right here.

Trump committed to free and fair elections.

What you see is just 43% of Americans actually do believe that Donald Trump is committed to free and fair elections.

The clear majority, 56%, say no, no, no, no.

They do not believe that Donald Trump is committed to free and fair elections.

And I will note it is the opposite for the Democratic Party, where you see the majority of Americans believe the Democratic Party is committed to free and fair elections, but

they do not, do not trust Donald Trump when it comes to his commitment to free and fair elections.

It may be, perhaps, he keeps lying about the 2020 election that he lost.

What about how independents are seeing this?

Okay, so you see this majority right here who say that Donald Trump is not committed to free and fair elections independence.

This is a group that Donald Trump has really been struggling with.

And when it comes to his commitment to free and fair elections, they absolutely believe he is not.

We're talking about two and three independents say, no, Donald Trump is not committed to free and fair elections.

Just a third of independents believe that Donald Trump is committed to free and fair elections.

They will view his current comments very negatively.

And this, of course, just builds upon the.

They're continuing distrust and they're deepening distrust of Donald Trump when it comes to his job for the president overall and specifically to this question, when it comes to his commitment to free and fair elections, if that number doesn't slap you in the face, I don't know what will.

What who do Americans overall trust when it comes to running elections?

Take the running of elections from the local communities, the local governments, and

Americans believe that the elections in 2024 that were run in their community were run very well.

We're talking about 69% of Americans say that the elections, in fact, in 2024 were run very well in their community.

Compare that to just 43% of Americans who say that they were run very well in the United States.

This Idea that you're going to take local power away and give it to the federal government is a terrible idea per the American people, when just 22% at this point view the federal government favorably and we have trust levels in the federal government at all time lows.

What is fascinating about this is that Republicans have historically said states rights, correct, and

don't want the federal government involved.

And now we're seeing the president kind of flip this on his head.

Donald Trump has flipped a lot of things on his head, but

on this particular issue, the American people are most certainly not with him.

All right, Harry, Anton, it is a pleasure to see you in person again.

President Trump is doubling down on his calls to essentially throw out the Constitution, at least parts of it, and

take over voting operations in more than a dozen states across the country.

He first, as we talked about yesterday, he first said this on a podcast, and

And he did clarify, it appears, defending his call for Republicans to nationalize elections, saying, here's the quote, the federal government should get involved, at least it appears in the places where he doesn't like how the votes have turned out in the past, like the election he lost in 2020.

Look at some of the places that horrible corruption on elections and the federal government should not allow that the federal government should get involved.

These are agents of the federal government to count the votes.

If they can't count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.

CNN's Kevin Lipchak is at the White House for us with much more.

it is just so striking to hear the president kind of redouble these calls to nationalize elections, particularly because a few hours beforehand the White House had tried walking it back.

And many Republicans said that they didn't agree with the president on this idea, in no small part because the Constitution says that states administer elections, that they're governed, you know, by local municipalities.

Remember, President Trump first raised this in a podcast interview with Dan Bongino.

He said that, quote, Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.

He called for Republican officials to, quote, take over voting procedures in 15 states, although he didn't name them.

When Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, was asked about that yesterday before the president appeared in the Oval Office, she said that he had actually been talking about this pending legislation on Capitol Hill that would require people to produce photo IDs before they registered to vote.

Listen, to what Caroline Levitt said, what does President Trump mean when he says Republicans ought to nationalize voting?

What the president was referring to is the SAVE act, which is a huge common sense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported that President Trump is committed to signing into law during his term.

And he spoke with the speaker directly about that yesterday, about the need to get that bill on the floor for a vote because it provides very common sense measures for voting in our country, such as voter id.

Now, President Trump actually made no mention of the SAVE act, either in that podcast interview or in the Oval Office a few hours later.

Instead, he said, quote, I want to see elections, be honest, and

if a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it.

Referring to the members of Congress who are joining him there in the Oval Office.

All of this seems to point to a broader effort by the president to sow distrust in elections, of course, months before the midterms in November.

All of it, of course, undergirded by his unsubstantiated claims that elections are rigged.

Kevin, thank you so much for keeping track of it.

He has long been a top election lawyer in Republican politics.

Warned in 2020 that the GOP was destroying itself by perpetuating Trump's false claims about election fraud.

Trump now saying and doubling down when asked to clarify.

And his clarity is that he wants Republicans to take over voting in 15 states is what he said.

The White House tried to walk it back, and he essentially said, believe what I said.

He talked about Pennsylvania, specifically Philadelphia, of course, also talking about Atlanta and in Georgia.

From your perspective, how bonkers is this or how real could it be?

They've had lots of opportunities to present evidence to back up with the president's alleging.

And in 64 court cases after the 2020 election, ample opportunities in suits filed before the 2024 elections, no proof, no evidence has come out.

You know, it's striking that they would go in and subpoena, do an FBI raid of Fulton county for the 2020 elections, which Trump lost, and

So presumably, even the president recognizes that Fulton county fixed its problems.

So that is that is exactly something that I heard when I had the head of the Fulton County Commission on yesterday.

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Enten: Americans don't trust Trump to run elections

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