BURSTA new poll shows that almost 6 in 10 U.S. adults say President Trump’s policies are making the economy worse.
CNN published survey results on Monday that show 59 percent of respondents believe the second Trump administration has worsened the country’s economic state.
The survey result is 8 points higher than when the question was asked in March and 4 points higher than in January, when former President Biden was still in office.
In the current survey, 27 percent of Americans say the economy has improved under Trump, while 14 percent say he’s had no impact on economic conditions. In the January survey, roughly the same number, 26 percent, said Biden's policies had improved the economy, and more respondents, 19 percent, said there was no impact on the economy.
Trump's first 100 days in office have included implementation of wide-ranging tariffs on the country’s largest trade partners.
“Everything I worked for all my life is rapidly [disappearing],” one Republican man surveyed, a 59-year-old from Georgia who worried about nearing retirement amid volatility in the stock market, wrote in response to the poll. “It will probably take years to recover what I have lost due to what’s going on.”
In March, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, while China now faces a 145 percent tax on most products imported to the U.S.
China responded with a 125 percent tariff on American manufactured items while refusing U.S. gas exports and pre-existing deals with companies like Boeing.
However, the president has signaled a hopeful outlook on relations between the world’s two largest economies, telling reporters he is looking to make a deal with foreign counterparts.
“We’re resetting the table. And I’m sure that we’ll be able to get along very well,” the president said earlier this month, days after announcing new tariffs.
Still, more than half of survey takers, 55 percent, say Trump’s tariffs are bad policy, according to the CNN poll.
Sixty percent of Americans say Trump has increased the cost of living, 28 percent say he’s had no impact on living expenses and 12 percent say he’s caused a decrease in prices, the CNN poll found.
A majority of respondents, 66 percent, say they were “pessimistic” or “afraid” for the future state of the economy and 34 percent said they were “enthusiastic” or “optimistic.”
Further, 69 percent say it is very or somewhat likely that the U.S. economy will enter a recession in the next year, according to the poll results.
CNN surveyed 1,678 U.S. adults age 18 or older via web and telephone from April 17-24. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.