Cost of Living Approval Just Hit a Presidential Low

The latest cost of living approval reading for Donald Trump is the worst any president has ever posted. A new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only seventeen percent of American adults approve of how Trump is handling the cost of living, and just twenty-six percent approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low, the Associated Press reported.

Sixty-five percent of adults now say Trump's policies deserve more blame for high prices than factors outside his control. Two years ago, a plurality of voters blamed Joe Biden's policies for inflation instead. The poll suggests growing weariness over Trump's aggressive use of tariffs and continued unhappiness over the war with Iran, as Fast Company noted in its breakdown of the results.

A number no president had posted before

CNN's Harry Enten said the net approval rating on inflation has fallen to a record low for any president, not just for Trump. Enten added that Trump is the first president ever to poll below negative fifty on inflation, and that he is now underwater "among Democrats, independents, and Republicans as well," Enten said in the segment.

The same survey found that roughly seven in ten adults described Trump's handling of the cost of living as worse than expected, including about half of Republicans. Worry about the basics keeps climbing: half of adults now say they are extremely or very concerned about being able to fill their gas tanks, up from thirty-nine percent in July, according to the poll results.

The cost of living approval slide shows up across nearly every issue the poll tested. On CNN's NewsNight, Abby Phillip's panel walked through ratings that were underwater on multiple fronts, while a former Trump aide could only answer with a claim of "two years of record-setting success," a line that landed oddly next to the numbers on screen.

The cost of living approval gap matters more than the usual partisan noise because it is not partisan. Democrats, independents, and Republicans all sit underwater on this one, which is why the White House keeps reaching for outside explanations. Tariffs and the Iran war get named in the coverage, but the poll's blunt finding is that voters no longer buy the idea that someone else caused the bill at the register.

Groceries, gas, and the Gen Z squeeze

For young adults entering their peak spending years, the squeeze lands hardest on groceries and rent. Bethany Lnenicka, forty-one, of Fairfax, Iowa, told the poll that groceries were "just kind of out of control" and that everything seemed to be going up. Her answer matched a mood the survey picked up across party lines. Anyone who wants the longer version of how that pressure compounds should read our earlier piece on why Gen Z feels rich on paper and broke at heart.

This is the same cost of living approval problem that keeps showing up in everyday math. Rent renewals, insurance premiums, and the grocery run all arrive before the campaign ads do. Pollsters keep finding the same pattern: voters do not grade the economy on speeches or stock tickers. They grade it on the receipt.

The midterms are the real deadline

The timing could hardly be worse for the White House. The midterm elections are weeks away and will decide whether Republicans keep control of Congress, while Trump is headlining rallies in Republican-leaning states. He has asked voters to pretend he is on the ballot to boost turnout, the Associated Press reported. Even many Republicans fault him for failing to deliver the relief he promised. Robert Gault, sixty-six, a retired factory worker from Bradford, Pennsylvania, who describes himself as a Republican, told the AP he had hoped the economy would turn out better or different, and that the president had not done what he had hoped for the country.

Cost of living approval is the rare number a campaign cannot argue with, because voters check it every time they open a grocery receipt. The White House can point to rally crowds and campaign ads, including the taxpayer-funded blitz covered earlier this week, but the question on the November ballot is simpler: whether life got cheaper. Every fresh cost of living approval release resets the same argument, and a number voters verify at the pump does not need a fact check. Right now, the poll says most Americans think it did not.