Americans remain wary of Trump's handling of the economy, new poll shows

Yahoo

21-05-2025

Americans' approval of President Donald Trump's economic stewardship remains low, new polling from Marquette University Law School shows, as the administration's shifting tariff policies sow uncertainty in global markets.
Thirty-seven percent of Americans in a May survey reported approval of how Trump was handling tariff policies, compared with 63 percent who said they disapproved. Similarly, 34 percent said they approved of Trump's handling of inflation and the cost of living, while 66 percent said they disapproved.
Overall, respondents gave a net -16 percentage point approval of the president's handling of the economy, with 42 percent of respondents reporting approval and 58 reporting disapproval.
Trump's tariffs have dominated airwaves since their initial unveiling on 'Liberation Day' in April kicked off weeks of volatility amid a raging global trade war.
The president then instituted a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs for every affected country except for China, promising that the move would have global trading partners lining up to make deals with his team. After a big rollout for a deal with the U.K., Trump last week announced that the U.S. will be unable to negotiate deals with over 50 trading partners and would instead unilaterally impose new tariff rates on the countries in the coming weeks.
Successful steering of the economy was one of Trump's key campaign platforms and has been central to the political identity the longtime businessman has aimed to cultivate. But recent polling reflects Americans' consistently dim view of the president's economic policies during his second administration.
But Americans were apprehensive about Trump's tariff plan even before he launched his sweeping policy in April.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents to a March Marquette poll said they thought the tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy, compared with 28 percent who said that they would help it. In the same poll, 58 percent of adults said they thought Trump's economic policies would increase inflation, while 30 percent thought they would decrease it.
Trump's overall approval also remains underwater, with 46 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval in May, which is unchanged since the March survey.
The Marquette poll was conducted between May 5-15, based on interviews of 1,004 adults across the country. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points.