‘Trump is Far and Away Getting the Most Mentions on Fox News,’ Says CNN’s Harry Enten — And He’s Gaining

Former President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are looking strong as the 2024 presidential election cycle heats up, and he’s racking up mentions on Fox News, according to an analysis by CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten.

Enten was on Saturday’s episode of CNN Newsroom to chat with anchor Jim Acosta about the ex-president’s performance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where he easily won the straw poll. Trump racked up 62 percent support, more than tripling the second-place finisher, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who chose not to attend the conference.

The CPAC straw poll was a “nonscientific, unofficial poll,” of course, Acosta noted, but “it falls in line” with recent polling numbers.

Enten concurred the CPAC numbers were not scientific, and then shared his analysis of the polling numbers and trend lines.

Trump had fallen in the polls in the wake of the GOP’s disappointing results in the 2022 midterm elections — “that’s not a big surprise,” noted Enten — and DeSantis’ numbers rose.

But then in the first tw0 months of this year, said Enten, Trump rebounded, with his advantage over DeSantis rising from ten points at the end of 2022 to back at 15 points.

There were no other GOP contenders who were “anywhere close,” said Enten. “Everybody else is in the mid- to maybe high single digits.”

“At this particular point, Donald Trump is the favorite for the Republican nomination in 2024,” he added. “That’s just what the numbers say, Jim.”

Acosta asked his colleague how often candidates who were polling like Trump was right now win their party’s nomination for president.

According to Enten, Trump “is actually in a stronger position than he was” at the same point in the 2016 election cycle, and candidates in his position “have won about 75% of the time in competitive primaries since 1972.”

Factoring in DeSantis’ strong second place in the polls, a frontrunner in Trump’s position with a challenger with DeSantis’ numbers would still win about two-thirds of the time.

“Two-thirds of the time to 75% of the time is pretty gosh darn good,” said Enten. “So at this particular point, look, is Trump the heavy favorite? No. But he is the clear favorite.”

Acosta mentioned how he had covered the Trump campaign in 2016 and he had won the nomination by “crowding out his opponents in press coverage,” and asked Enten how the press coverage was going this year. “It just seems to be all Trump all the time, almost, in the Republican party right now.”

“It is,” Enten agreed, and went through the Fox News mentions over the last few months, showing that Trump “is far and away getting the most mentions on Fox News,” with over 2,000 to DeSantis’ 721 in just the last two months.

“And more than that, Trump is picking up an increasing share of the mentions,” said Enten. “It’s not just that he’s well ahead but he’s actually gaining.”

Watch above via CNN.