AP-NORC poll finds low approval of Trump’s handling of cost of living and economy
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The Facts
- An AP-NORC poll found that 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living.
- The poll found that 26% approve of Trump’s handling of the overall economy.
- The 26% economic-approval rating was a new low for Trump in the AP-NORC poll.
- Sixty-five percent said Trump’s policies were more responsible for high prices than factors outside his control.
- The midterm elections will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress.
- The AP-NORC poll surveyed 2,140 adults from September 24 through 28.
Context
Who conducted the poll?
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted the survey of 2,140 U.S. adults from September 24 through 28. Financial Express Mediaite FOX 9 Minneapolis-S…
What did respondents say about high prices?
Sixty-five percent of U.S. adults said Trump’s policies were more responsible for persistently high costs than factors outside his control. India Today Independent U.S. News & World R… PBS.org KPRC
Why do the poll findings matter politically?
They were released weeks before midterm elections that will decide whether Republicans maintain control of Congress. India Today Independent U.S. News & World R… Economic Times Newsday
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- 65% say Trump's own policies, not outside forces, are driving high prices, and both sides read 17% cost-of-living approval as a clear failing grade on his economic agenda.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- The left and the right both call Trump's cost-of-living approval a failing grade, but they argue over what it's grading.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in institutional accountability: whether a president's low approval numbers themselves constitute a verdict that should reshape policy, or whether only the midterm vote itself can legitimately assign responsibility for prices.
- Watch for
- Watch whether Trump and Vance's campaign travel to shore up GOP enthusiasm in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida ahead of next month's midterms translates into any shift in these cost-of-living approval numbers.U.S. News & World Report
How left and right read it
Whether people can afford groceries, rent, and care is the test an economic agenda has to pass, and 17% approval on the cost of living says this one is failing it. That judgment isn't vague unease: 65% point to Trump's own policies rather than forces beyond his control, and overall economic approval has sunk to a new low of 26%. Control of Congress is on the ballot. So what do voters owe a governing majority that has not made daily life cheaper?
“Public frustration over the economy and rising prices is weighing heavily on President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections, with a majority of Americans blaming his policies for stubbornly high costs.” — The Independent
A governing majority holds power on the terms it was given, and the terms here were prices. Sixty-five percent say Trump's own policies, not forces beyond his control, are driving high prices — so voters are already assigning ownership, and 17% approval on cost of living is the receipt. Congress is on the ballot. Nothing else on the agenda earns its place until everyday prices come down.
For the right, affordability is the one bill that must clear before anything else on the agenda counts; for the left, it's already the verdict on all of it.
The receipts — all 51 sources
Wire services (8)
Independent coverage (43)
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