Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how President Trump has handled inflation — one of his key campaign promises, a new poll has found six months into Trump’s second term.
The CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday also found that half of U.S. adults think that the Trump administration’s policies have made them “financially worse off” and 62 percent think the White House’s policies have driven food and grocery costs up.
Inflation rose by 2.7 percent in June, as businesses passed the costs of Trump’s tariff hikes onto consumers. Trump has insisted, though, that inflation has settled as he has pressed Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.
The White House has cited “core inflation,” which excludes energy and food prices, as an indicator of positive movement on the issue. Core inflation hit 2.9 percent in June, below the expected 3 percent but up from 2.8 percent the month earlier.
“The USA is Rockin’, there is VERY LOW INFLATION,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday.
More than three-fourths of Republicans surveyed in the new poll said they approve of Trump’s handling of inflation, while Democrats and independents overwhelmingly disapproved at 95 percent and 72 percent, respectively.
The White House didn’t immediately provide comment for this story, but it touted Trump’s inflation record in a news release last week.
“Every month since President Trump took office, core inflation — the best measure of inflation — has beat or matched expectations,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday. “The data proves that President Trump is stabilizing inflation and the Panicans continue to be wrong about tariffs raising prices.”
The president has pressed for lower interest rates, but economists warn that such a move could drive inflation higher.
The CBS News/YouGov poll found people were split on the issue: 39 percent said that the White House’s priority should be keeping interest rates where they are to try to control inflation; 34 percent said interest rates should be cut; and 27 percent said they were not sure.
The CBS News/YouGov poll surveyed 2,343 adults nationwide Wednesday through Friday. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.
