Golden age? Americans doubt Trump’s claim of booming economy as midterms near, poll finds

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump says the US 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,” Mr Trump said in his

State of the Union address

on Feb 24. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before.”

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, completed on Feb 23, showed 68 per cent of people disagree with a statement that

“the US economy is booming”

, a claim Mr 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 Nov 3 midterm elections when Mr Trump’s party will defend majorities in the US House of Representatives and Senate.

Some 56 per cent of Republicans thought the economy was booming, while 43 per cent disagreed.

“We are struggling”

In Dickson, Tennessee, west of Nashville, Mr Marcus Tripp wishes Mr Trump would prioritise making the country more prosperous over his aggressive effort to deport unauthorised immigrants.

“The economy is what he needs to be focused on,” said Mr Tripp, 53, who works in manufacturing in a district represented by Republican US 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 Mr 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 Mr Trump in January 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 March 3 in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas.

Worries about cost of living

Only 16 per cent of poll respondents agreed with a statement that “there is hardly any inflation in the US”.

Eighty-two per cent of respondents overall – and the same share of independents – disagreed, as did 72 per cent of Republicans.

Democrats, who have become more bearish on the economy since Mr 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 Mr Trump has put forward to limit increases in the cost of living, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Some 44 per cent of respondents had never heard of the White House plan unveiled in January to restrict large investors, such as investment firms, from buying single-family homes. Forty-eight per cent had never heard of Mr Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10 per cent.

Americans were considerably more aware of Mr Trump’s pre-eminent economic policy push of raising tariffs on imported goods, with 78 per cent saying they had heard at least a little about tariff hikes.

Some 54 per cent of respondents – including 69 per cent of Democrats and 42 per cent of Republicans – said they expected tariffs to raise the cost of living.

“I’m not impressed by what’s going on domestically,” Ms Tiffany Ritchie of Corpus Christi, Texas, said of Mr Trump’s approach to the economy.

Ms Ritchie, 50, considers herself an independent and voted for Mr Trump in 2024. But she sees his characterisation 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 in 2026, though few expect a boom.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 4,638 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points. REUTERS