Nearly half of U.S. voters believe their financial situation is rapidly deteriorating under Donald Trump’s market-busting second stint in the White House.
A new poll, conducted by Harris and reported by the Guardian Monday, shows more than 45 percent of Americans “said their financial security is getting worse,” compared to just a measly 20 percent who feel things are looking up.
Those figures also come as 57 percent of respondents said they believe the United States has been hit with an economic recession, marking an 11-point increase on polls conducted in the immediate aftermath of Joe Biden’s January departure from the White House.
The overwhelming majority among Democrats and Independents, at 76 and 72 percent respectively, believe rampant unaffordability is squarely the fault of the Trump administration, dropping only to 55 percent among Republicans.
Despite Trump’s claims to have “created the greatest economy in history,” Monday’s poll is hardly the only sign of mounting economic panic among voters ahead of next year’s crucial midterm elections.
One poll, published by Politico earlier this month, suggests almost half of Americans believe the present cost-of-living crisis is the worst they’ve ever seen.
Those sentiments would appear borne out by most measures of fiscal performance. GDP growth has almost halved on last year amid Trump’s tariff war with ally and enemy alike, while inflation remains persistently high, with rising costs thought to be hitting lower- and middle-income families hardest on everything from energy to utilities and groceries.
A November poll by NBC found those anxieties have further translated into voter intentions ahead of next year’s race for control of the House and Senate, with Democrats holding an eight-point lead on Republicans, marking the largest pre-poll advantage for either party since 2018.
Even Trump himself appears to have been forced to concede that his bluster on economic performance has roundly failed to win many hearts and minds of late.
“It may take people a while to figure all these things out,” he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “All this money that’s pouring into our country is building things right now—car plants, AI, lots of stuff. I cannot tell you how that’s going to equate to the voter, all I can do is do my job.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.
