Name: Iran vs. economy: Enten reveals what Americans care about more
Uploaded: 2026-03-16T16:41:32.000Z
Duration: 8 min 33 s
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Is the war helping or hurting the president politically?

CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enton here with us to give us the details.

There is a lot that's been going on with Iran, a lot of Americans paying attention to that.

We have had, you know, members of the military killed.

Yeah, you know, there's been a lot that's been going on over the past few weeks, but

so far there's kind of been a little bit of a collective shrug from the American public.

Americans who say they care about a lot about the Iranian situation, look at this.

Just 45% of Americans say they care a lot about the situation going on in Iran.

economy, which of course is the number one issue right now in this country.

And this 45% number, only about half that.

So despite all the hubbub, right now we're talking about less than a majority of Americans who say they care a lot about what's going on in Iran right now.

But the war in Iran does affect the US Economy.

That's going to be the question going forward.

So going forward, we'll have to see what happens with the war and how it affects gas prices, et cetera, et cetera.

So is interest starting to rise or is it kind of just falling off?

Yeah, this to me, again, just such an interesting number because we have this 45%.

But take a look at Google searches right now because it just sort of reinforces that point.

Americans, Google searches for Iran, look at this, down, down 84% versus February 28th, when of course, the current war started in Iran.

And if you look back on Sunday, you look back yesterday, searches for the Academy Awards significantly higher, talking about three, four times as high as searches for Iran in the United States of America.

So at this point, outside of the situation in Iran, perhaps affecting the US Economy, which of course is the number one issue, is what Americans are focusing on.

I'm just not thinking that this is necessarily going to be the big political mover and shaker that you might expect, given that this has kind of been a pretty gosh darn big deal, at least globally speaking.

So then, taking a look at what's happened with the President and whether his popularity has changed at all.

Which is perhaps it's not so much of a surprise when just 45% of Americans say they care a lot about the Iranian situation, that the president's overall approval rating is the same.

It was 41% before the current war in Iran started and it is 41% now.

So despite again, all the hubbub, despite all the critics of the President of the United States, all what we are seeing right now is a president whose approval rating is steady and this is not, has not been a big deal politically, electorally speaking.

Obviously, as gas prices climb higher, if all of a sudden prices in other parts of the economy also climb higher, perhaps you'll see this number begin to shift.

But at this point, this has been politically a big ball of nothing.

Kevin Hassett, he's the director of the National Economic Council and Chris Wright, Energy Secretary, they were asked all weekend, what does this mean?

What does this mean for the global economy?

Because of course, we are quickly all being reminded that it is not just about oil.

We expect that the global economy is going to have a big positive shock as soon as this is over.

And we're still being briefed that it would be four to six weeks from the beginning and that we're ahead of schedule.

This is short term pain and to get through to a much better place.

I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks.

the conflict will come to the end in the next few weeks and we'll see a rebound in supplies and a pushing down of prices after that.

Okay, so that's the word from the news sets.

I'm going to play the street pundits for you.

Here's the word of what people are saying online.

Come with me to get the cheapest gas in Houston right now and I'm willing to make the drive because these gas prices are out of line right now.

I'm not liking where it's going right now because 40.

I haven't seen 40, bro, since like when Biden was in office years ago.

I've already spent $40 and I'm not full $73.

People aren't treating it like short term pain.

And actually in a different interview over the weekend, Chris Wright was Asked if he thought that it would get down gallon before the busy summer travel season.

And he stressed that there are no guarantees in war.

So even as they're saying, listen, we're expecting four to six weeks here, we're ahead of schedule, they don't want to make those promises to the American people as well.

I mean, this is still an open ended conflict that the President is saying will end when he feels it deep in his bones, which is something that has come under great criticism over the weekend as well, because there's still this question, I think, particularly from Democrats, Democrats on Capitol Hill about what are the objectives and when exactly will they be met.

It was interesting to see that kind of timeline someone putting out there even in the line of questioning.

This is not a situation where it's going to abide by the holiday season.

You had domestic politicians like former Republican Governor Chris Sununu speaking in these terms.

A memorial Day is always kind of a, a marker, if you will, for where gas prices are going to be set for the rest of the summer.

If he can, you know, have this large military onslaught that can somehow secure the Strait of Hormuz either with regime change or militarily sometime in the next 45 days, then absolutely it doesn't really become a political piece of the puzzle come November.

I mean, he makes it sound like there was some kind of plan that nobody knew about that, you know, oh, it's going to be done in this number of days.

That seems to be pretty clearly wishful thinking at this point.

It's interesting to me that now the is having to ask for the help of other countries.

I mean, usually in this kind of action, American presidents before this would go build an international coalition before going in.

And now the Trump administration, which has made such a big point of doing anything it wants to, you know, at all, is now having to go ask for help.

And I think the interesting element of that having to ask for help is something that everybody should be paying.

And whether there are levers with our US allies or there used to be, given the tenseness of the last year, and

I can sympathize, sympathize with all of those videos.

It was $4.34 a gallon for me to fill up this weekend.

And I haven't seen that price in weeks, months.

You know, you started to get used to the under four dollar a gallon gas.

And that's not only going to affect Memorial Day.

We've got spring break travel coming up, then the start of the summer.

And if people really feel it in their pocketbook, it'll go not only that, it'll go just trickling effects like house prices that were cease feeling like something that is far away.

Gas prices as you know Rahm, are now almost 80 cents higher than they were just a month or so ago.

At this point, how much is this weighing in on the Trump administration as it continues this war?

Well, I've described it and I think you should think of it as a 24 second shot clock.