"Getting worse": Majority of Americans think economy is in decline under Trump
There's no doubt that President Donald Trump's chaotic tariff regime rocked Wall Street. But a new poll shows that the bad vibes extend well outside the stock exchange, as Trumpian uncertainty hangs over Main Street.
A CBS/YouGov poll shared earlier this week found that a majority of Americans believe the economy is backsliding in the early days of Trump 2.0. 53% of respondents told pollsters that they believe the economy is getting worse under Donald Trump and a majority of Americans expected the economy to slow or enter a recession in the next year.
56% of respondents said they disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy, up from 49% in March. Nearly 60% of those polled said they opposed new tariffs on U.S. imports. 65% of Americans said they expect the tariffs to make things worse in the short term and 42% expected the duties to have a negative impact in the long term. Compare that to just 8% of respondents who said tariffs would improve the economy immediately and 34% who thought they would have a positive effect given time.
CNN data analyst Harry Enten called the results "the worst set of polling data that Donald Trump has had in his entire second term as president."
"The majority of Americans think that the economy is getting worse," Enten said. "It's an 11-point jump from November to now, and of course Donald Trump won the 2024 election because he promised to fix the economy."
The polling data also showed that the consensus around who to blame for a lackluster economy had shifted, with most respondents blaming the current president for the first time this term.
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The big fear is that Iran retaliates by targeting the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow body of water separating the Persian Gulf from global oceans, and the most critical oil chokepoint on the planet. Iran has in the past threatened to do just that. 'In the unlikely scenario of Iran disrupting flows through the Strait of Hormuz, we could see a significant supply shock with oil prices rising sharply,' Jorge León, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy, wrote in a report on Friday. That's because about 21 million barrels of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz per day, accounting for about one-fifth of the world's daily consumption, according to the US Energy Information Administration. But Rystad Energy said that if Iran opts for a more 'limited' response that only focuses on Israeli military sites, the oil market reaction could remain 'contained and temporary.' And that in turn would limit how much gasoline prices increase. 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The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Last year, a lot of indie-music fans—including myself—got someone else's packing list stuck in their head. I'd walk around muttering 'Milk thistle, calcium, high-rise, boot cut / Advil, black jeans, blue jeans'—lyrics hissed out by the art-punk legend Kim Gordon on a song called 'Bye Bye.' The track led off her album The Collective, one of the most acclaimed releases of 2024. Over hard hip-hop beats and snarling guitar distortion, Gordon stammered about daily banalities, reframing modern life as a psychological war zone. Now the 72-year-old co-founder of Sonic Youth has released a new version of the song, called 'Bye Bye 25.' 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'That's what I hope I'm doing with my music and my lyrics—really describing what's going on.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
