Americans Are Worried About Cost Of Living And Many Blame Trump Policies For It: Poll

A majority of Americans say that the cost of living is the worst they can remember and a significant number of them blame the Iran war and President Trump’s policies, according to a new survey.

The May Politico poll found that 53 percent of respondents believe cost of living was the worst they could remember. That figure was up from slightly from November. The number of respondents holding Trump responsible for this held steady at 46 percent.

The outlet noted that, among Trump voters, the president fared better. However, even they were split on the issue of whether Trump had done enough to mitigate rising costs from the Iran conflict, with 43 percent saying he had and 43 percent saying he had not.

“A major challenge for [Joe] Biden was that, as prices rose and worries about inflation took hold, the response from the Biden administration was that inflation was ‘transitory,'” Kevin Madden, a longtime GOP communications strategist, told Politico.

“Trump faces a similar predicament. As prices rise due to tariff and trade policies and global conflict, the response that it’s a hoax or not true is just a very discordant message given that so many voters are feeling a budget pinch right now,” Madden told the website.

Since the start of the Iran war, the inflation rate has been increasing. The rate increased from 2.4 percent in February to 3.3 percent in March, Trading Economics reported. The rate rose to 3.8 percent in April, the highest inflation has been since May 2023.

Gas prices did come down some in the last week, with the average per gallon price falling from $4.55 to $4.39, AAA reported. However, that still is elevated when compared to a year ago when the average price of a gallon of gas was $3.16.

“The sooner the war winds down, the better for Trump when it comes to prospects in the midterms because the price of gas is so intricate in the notion of affordability,” a Florida-based Republican strategist told Politico.

In the meantime, U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly in May. Concretely, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dropped 0.7 points to 93.1. The entity added special questions to the survey, determining that rising prices have caused many Americans to change their spending habits.

Two-thirds of respondents said they have changed their spending habits, particularly by reducing purchases and delaying expensive acquisitions.

Elsewhere, a Gallup poll showing that Americans’ confidence in the economy is now at a four-year low. Concretely, the pollster’s Economic Confidence Index fell to -45, the lowest reading for the index since October 2022. The index remains above the lowest point of the Biden presidency, -58, which was reached in June 2022 as the economy was still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic.