65% of Americans blame Trump for high cost of living, new poll shows - USA Today
A majority of adults blame President Donald Trump for the high cost of living in a new poll.
The AP-NORC poll released Oct. 1 found that 65% of Americans overall said the cost-of-living issues today are a result of Trump's policies, while 67% of Republicans said the prices are due to reasons outside of the president's control.
Trump has often blamed former President Joe Biden for the economy, though a smaller share of people, 44%, said in October 2022 that high prices were a result of Biden's policies, according to the pollster.
"Affordability ... I inherited that from the Biden administration. We had very high prices; we had eggs that were selling at four times what they are now, we had all sorts of product that was just tremendously out of control," Trump said in the Oval Office on Aug. 31. But part of the inflation issue today comes from the Iran war driving up gas and oil prices. Trump has predicted that gas prices will fall again once the war ends.
Poor voter sentiment over the cost of living is something Democrats have capitalized on as they try to take back control of Congress in the midterm elections. The poll also comes as Trump is set to begin a campaign blitz in an effort to visit 35 competitive House and Senate races around the country, starting with Texas and Oklahoma.
The cost of living and the economy were the worst-rated issues for Trump among those surveyed in the poll. Just 17% of adults approve of how he is handling the cost-of-living issue. His approval rating on the economy reached a new low of 26%, down 14 points since March 2025, according to AP.
For 69% of the public, Trump's handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected, including 52% of Republicans. Across three quality-of-life markers — the national economy, the country as a whole and the local economy — more than half said they were worse off than when Trump took office in 2025. Forty-six percent said they and their families were worse off, too.
The poll was conducted Sept. 24-28 among 2,140 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for the overall sample.
Trump's approval rating in the AP-NORC poll sat at 31%, while 69% disapproved. That's worse than the national average. Aggregated by several pollsters, here is where Trump's average approval rating stands as of Oct. 1.
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. She is reporting from Maine for the 2026 midterm elections. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her onX (Twitter),Threads,Bluesky andTikTok.
