A new poll surveying American voters’ attitudes about the economy has found that a sizable chunk of President Donald Trump’s own voters are blaming him for the high cost of living. That finding should be setting off alarms for the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections — especially since health care costs are about to skyrocket for millions of Americans.
A Politico poll, conducted by Public First, which surveyed almost 2,100 U.S. adults Nov. 14 to 17, found that 46% of Americans say the cost of living is the worst they can recall. The perception of the economy did not fall along partisan lines: A 37% plurality of people who voted tor Trump last year expressed that sentiment. (Thirty-four percent of 2024 Trump voters said, “The cost of living here is bad, but I can remember times when it was worse,” and 24% said, “The cost of living here is not bad.”)
Almost 1 in 5 Trump voters think he’s entirely responsible for today’s economy.
The poll also asked who should be held accountable for the state of the economy, and that’s not promising news for Trump, either. While 37% of 2024 Trump voters believe former President Joe Biden holds full responsibility for the current state of the economy, 18% say Trump holds full responsibility for the current economy, and 7% say the responsibility lies mainly with Trump, though somewhat with Biden. A separate 14% say the responsibility lies equally between them, and 18% say the responsibility lies mainly with Biden, though somewhat with Trump.
To recap: Huge swathes of the country think there is an affordability crisis in America, almost 1 in 5 Trump voters think he’s entirely responsible for today’s economy, and a majority of them think he’s at least partially responsible.
A New York Times polling analysis published Friday suggests that increasing voter disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy could explain his decline in approval ratings in recent weeks. As the Times points out, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that just 26% of Americans said Trump was doing a good job at managing the cost of living.
“Affordability” has become a watchword in American politics across the political spectrum.
“Affordability” has become a watchword in American politics across the political spectrum. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign laser-focused on addressing the issue and managed to win after starting at 1% in the polls this year. Trump took note. When the two met in the Oval Office in November, Trump said that they shared common ground on the issue. “We had some interesting conversation, and some of his ideas really are the same ideas I have,” Trump said. “The new word is ‘affordability.’”
But in a classic display of his mercurial temperament and incoherent policy vision, Trump has simultaneously denied that there is an affordability crisis at all, calling the concern a “con job by the Democrats.”
As my colleague Steve Benen recently put it, “Maybe the president doesn’t have any ideas about what to do about the cost of living; maybe he’s convinced himself that his absurdities are true. Whatever the motivation, Trump spent parts of his latest White House Cabinet meeting insisting that Americans shouldn’t believe their lying eyes — or wallets.”
Recent political history should be instructive for the GOP — inflation is the biggest, simplest explanation for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump in 2024. The Biden administration erred politically in trying to convince people they were wrong about the economy instead of taking additional steps to tackle it with a bolder policy vision. Trump, forever immune to facts and addicted to tariffs, seems likely to lead his party down the wrong path as well.
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