Most Americans blame Trump for high cost of living, per new poll
- Alexangel Ventura
- Aug 1
- 2 min read
According to a new poll conducted by the Morning Consult/The Century Foundation, the majority of American respondents agreed that Donald Trump is the sole contributor to their higher cost of living.
The 2,007-member poll, according to The Century Foundation, asked Americans, "how they are managing amid the high cost of living in today’s economy, who they think is to blame for the increasing precarity in their daily lives, and what should be done to fix it."
The survey showed that 6 in 10 respondents place blame on Donald Trump for driving up their cost of living, citing difficulty keeping up with bill payments, and concerns of falling even further behind. Meanwhile, they generally believe that the government including the Republican caucus in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, corporations, and billionaires have already made their lives harder just half a year into Trump's second term.
In other parts of the survey, 40% of Americans have dipped their expenses into their savings, 37% turned into debt-accessible credit cards, and many respondents are borrowing cash from family and friends to make ends meet.
Furthermore, Americans have believed that corporations rather than government red tape is the primary cause to their problems. President Trump and Republicans in 2024 placed blame on the Biden administration for similarly-deemed red tape, but now most Americans think otherwise.
The survey found three main findings: Americans blame their financial struggles on Trump & corporations, are accumulating debt and other risking financial practices to adapt, and are more focused on basics in finance like finding a job and an affordable home over recent price hikes on specific goods.
In the month of July, the U.S. economy added significantly less jobs than usual - a mere 72,000 - as businesses lay off employees due to tariff pressures, according to a report from the labor Department. Due to this new change, the unemployment rate rose 4.2%, a reversal from the previous months' trend of a falling unemployment percentage.
And as much as the Trump administration has tried to downplay the effect of tariffs on the job market, this new piece of data has shown that the outcome of tariff policies have finally come into fruition after months of speculation. "A notable deterioration in U.S. labor market conditions appears to be underway," said Scott Anderson, the Chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Markets, to AP News Friday. "We have been forecasting this since the tariff and trade war erupted this spring and more restrictive immigration restrictions were put in place. Overall, this report highlights the risk of a harder landing for the labor market."
In addition, while the survey found that most Americans have downplayed price hikes on certain consumer goods, these hikes have had a far broader impact on the U.S. economy. In June, the CPI index increased, indicating a rise in prices. In addition, the Federal Reserve held rates steady in part because of steadily rising inflation, a contrast from what President Trump promised to Americans.
