Only 17% of Americans approve of how Donald Trump is handling the cost of living, according to a new poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, while 82% disapprove.
The poll surveyed 2,140 adults from September 24 to 28, about five weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. It found Trump’s approval on the economy overall at 26%, the lowest of his second term and a 14 point drop from March 2025, right after he returned to office. His overall job approval sits at 31%, with 69% disapproving.
The frustration runs straight back to his own campaign. Trump ran in 2024 promising to bring prices down after years of high inflation under Joe Biden. Now about 7 in 10 Americans say his handling of the cost of living has been worse than they expected, and that includes 52% of Republicans.
Americans are not blaming the global economy or anyone else for it either. The poll found 65% blame Trump’s policies more than outside factors for prices staying high.
His own party is pulling away on this issue. About 6 in 10 Republicans now disapprove of how he is handling the cost of living, up from about half in April.
The worry is showing up at the gas pump and the grocery store. About half of adults now say they are extremely or very concerned about being able to afford gas, up from 39% in July, and about half say the same about food.
Tariffs are a big part of the picture. A tariff is a tax on goods brought into the country from overseas, and businesses usually pass that cost on to shoppers through higher prices. The poll found 64% of Americans say Trump has gone too far with new tariffs, up from 58% in January.
The cost of living is his weakest issue, but it is not the only one where he is underwater. The same poll put his approval on Iran at 28%, on immigration at 39% and on border security at 48%.
AP-NORC is not alone. A Reuters/Ipsos poll also put his approval on the cost of living at 17%, and a CNN poll had it at 20%. Newsweek found that 82% disapproval on living costs is higher than the disapproval George W. Bush received for his handling of the Iraq War.
His overall numbers look just as rough heading into November. A Wall Street Journal poll of 1,500 registered voters taken September 16 to 21 put Trump’s approval at 37%, the lowest for any president this close to a midterm in the Journal’s polling. That is below the 39% Bush had heading into the 2006 midterms, when Democrats picked up 31 House seats and five Senate seats and took control of Congress.
Quinnipiac University found his approval at 34% with 61% disapproving, his worst showing in any of its polls this term. And a new NBC News and Telemundo poll released Sunday found just 27% of Latino voters approve of the job he is doing, with 69% disapproving.
Not every survey is that low. Morning Consult has Trump at 42% approval and 56% disapproval, one of the higher marks among recent polls. Even there, more voters disapprove of him than approve.
With control of the House and Senate on the ballot next month, the cost of living is shaping up as the issue Republicans will have to answer for. In the AP-NORC poll, more than half of adults said the country, the national economy and their local economy are worse off since Trump was reelected, and 46% said their own families are worse off.
