Scott Jennings: Trump Is the 80/20 President

CNN's Scott Jennings has been hard at work reminding his fellow panelists and viewers that President Donald Trump is doing quite well, and it's Democrats screeching like lunatics who are the unpopular ones. He illustrated that quite well, in fact, during Sunday's episode of "State of the Union."

During the panel discussion at the end of the program, Jennings and Kate Bedingfield, who had served as White House communications director during the Biden administration, got into it about spending cuts. This has been particularly relevant when it comes to the advice Elon Musk has been providing as he and members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been scrutinizing the federal government.

Bedingfield offered some words of caution for Democrats, which is that they "have to be very careful not to fall into a message that sounds like they are just knee-jerk defending institutions, because I do think that that's not going to be a winning argument." Be that as it may, that seems to be exactly what Democrats and top leaders in the party, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are doing.

CRINGE: Seeing Chuck Schumer leading anti-@elonmusk chants is enough to make your ears bleed. pic.twitter.com/LmHTI5cKop
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 4, 2025

"This is the issue, though," Jennings pointed out in response. "Democrats do need everything Trump--Trump is like the 80/20 president. He gets on the right side of all these 80/20 issues."

They do knee-jerk, and that, Jennings made clear, has consequences. "Democrats knee-jerk and take the 20. And then what happens? Today, CBS News poll this morning, Donald Trump sitting at a 53 percent approval rating, the highest he's ever recorded in that survey. Why? Because Democrats are taking the wrong side of all of these obvious issues, number one. And, number two, they're giving him an enormous amount of latitude to move fast and break things, which I heard used in a pejorative fashion, but when you're talking about the government, that's what people want Trump to do."

Trump at 53% approval in @cbs poll this morning because he’s getting on the right side of virtually every issue, and vast majority think he’s fulfilling his promises. My take on @CNNSOTU today. He’s the 80/20 president. pic.twitter.com/Rl7MIY97o9
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) February 9, 2025

Curiously, Jennings' mention of such a poll released on Sunday, as Townhall has also been covering, was not otherwise mentioned during the program, though he framed it exactly right when it comes to such positive findings for Trump. Another major takeaway is that 70 percent of respondents say Trump is doing the "same things he promised in the campaign."

When it comes to Democrats' behavior, Jennings had also pointed out earlier in the segment how "when I see Democrats rushing out to defend some of the things that he's cutting, I mean, it makes the Democratic Party sink to very low levels."

That brings us to another recent poll, from Quinnipiac University, which showed that Americans have a 57-31 percent unfavorable view of the Democratic Party.

Jennings isn't the only one to refer to Trump as the 80/20 president. Mary Katharine Ham made the same argument in a column on Monday for OutKick. Such a column delved into specific issues, namely how Trump last week signed an executive order banning boys and men from participating in girls' and women's sports, which Democratic lawmakers threw a complete fit over, despite protecting sports for girls and women being one of those 80/20 issues.