By Jason Lange and Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump says the U.S. economy is booming and that he has fixed inflation. But most Americans, including many in his Republican Party, do not see things that way, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
“This is the golden age of America,” Trump said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before.”
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, completed on Monday, showed 68% of people disagree with a statement that “the U.S. economy is booming,” a claim Trump has repeatedly made since returning to office in January 2025.
Republicans in the survey were sharply divided on how well the economy is doing, a warning sign for the party ahead of the November 3 midterm elections when Trump’s party will defend majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Some 56% of Republicans thought the economy was booming, while 43% disagreed.
‘WE ARE STRUGGLING’
In Dickson, Tennessee, west of Nashville, Marcus Tripp wishes Trump would prioritize making the country more prosperous over his aggressive effort to deport unauthorized immigrants.
“The economy is what he needs to be focused on,” said Tripp, 53, who works in manufacturing in a district represented by Republican U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps, whose special election last fall turned out to be more competitive than expected as Democrats rallied to support the challenger.
“Even as a two-income household, we are struggling,” said Tripp, who leans Republican. “I am worried more about how much my rent and everything is going up than I am about whether the guy down the street has citizenship documents or not.”
Americans interviewed in the Reuters/Ipsos poll cited the cost of living as the top issue that will determine how they will vote in November’s midterms. They also rejected assertions that price increases were no longer a problem, a claim made by Trump last month when he said “inflation has been defeated” and that Americans currently see “virtually no inflation.”
Republicans and Democrats will begin to pick their candidates for November’s elections in primaries that begin on Tuesday in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas.
WORRIES ABOUT COST OF LIVING
Only 16% of poll respondents agreed with a statement that “there is hardly any inflation in the U.S.”
Eighty-two percent of respondents overall – and the same share of independents – disagreed, as did 72% of Republicans. Democrats, who have become more bearish on the economy since Trump returned to the White House, overwhelmingly rejected notions of an economic boom or vanquished inflation.
Many Americans are unaware of the policies and proposals Trump has put forward to limit increases in the cost of living, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Some 44% of respondents had never heard of the White House plan unveiled last month to restrict large investors, such as investment firms, from buying single-family homes. Forty-eight percent had never heard of Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
Americans were considerably more aware of Trump’s pre-eminent economic policy push of raising tariffs on imported goods, with 78% saying they had heard at least a little about tariff hikes. Some 54% of respondents – including 69% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans – said they expected tariffs to raise the cost of living.
“I’m not impressed by what’s going on domestically,” Tiffany Ritchie of Corpus Christi, Texas, said of Trump’s approach to the economy. Ritchie, 50, considers herself an independent and voted for Trump in 2024. But she sees his characterization of the economy as insulting and thinks his policies might not work. “We’re not going to tariff our way out of this.”
Many economists expect economic growth to pick up modestly this year, though few expect a boom.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 4,638 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange and Bo Erickson; editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)
