President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating on the cost of living has exceeded the level recorded for former President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq War, according to a comparison of national polls. An AP-NORC poll conducted from September 24 to 28 found that 82 percent of U.S. adults disapproved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, while 17 percent approved.
The survey questioned 2,140 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. That was 11 percentage points higher than the 71 percent who disapproved of Bush’s handling of the Iraq War in a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted from January 11 to 15, 2009, among a random sample of 1,112 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone, with a plus or minus 3 percentage point margin of error. The comparison is striking but not definitive.
The surveys were conducted by different organizations, used different questions and measured opinion under substantially different political and economic conditions. Still, the most recent result is not an outlier: several recent polls show Trump’s approval on inflation or the cost of living falling into the teens. The samples and methodologies (included in full at the end of this article) of the polls mentioned above vary: some surveyed all U.S. adults, while others focused on registered or likely voters.
Their results should therefore be treated as several snapshots pointing in the same direction, rather than as directly interchangeable measurements. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said "the ultimate poll" was the November 5, 2024, election, when voters elected Trump to pursue what Ingle called his "popular and commonsense agenda." Ingle pointed to the administration’s efforts to "create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability" as evidence of "historic progress." Newsweek emailed the White House on Friday morning for further comment. Living costs affect voters through groceries, gasoline, rent, utilities and other recurring household expenses.
Weak ratings on affordability therefore present a direct political risk ahead of the midterm elections. The scale of public dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the cost of living has few obvious modern precedents. The closest historical comparison in the January 2009 CBS News/New York Times poll may be Bush’s rating on the economy rather than Iraq.
That survey found 77 percent disapproved of Bush’s economic performance as the country struggled through the financial crisis. Trump’s current cost-of-living disapproval was five points higher, although "the economy" and "the cost of living" are not identical measures. An ABC News/Ipsos poll, conducted October 29-30, 2021, among a random national sample of 514 adults, with a margin of sampling error of 4.7 points, put approval of former President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan at 34 percent, meaning roughly two-thirds did not approve, while historical Gallup data show that approval of President Lyndon B.
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