By a 2-to-1 margin, Americans say Trump has done more to raise prices than lower them

One of the main reasons why President Trump won a second term in last year’s election was the perception that the Biden administration was bungling inflation. Trump was better equipped to lower prices.

However a new Yahoo/YouGov poll This shows that by a two-to-one margin, Americans believe the president has done more to raise prices (49%) than to lower them (24%) since returning to office in January.

At a time when 72 percent of Americans describe the economy as fair or poor and 79 percent say they are paying more for the same goods and services than they did a few years ago, the sense that Trump is making things worse rather than better helps explain why most Americans (56%) continue to disapprove of the way he is handling his job as a president and why even more (63%) disapprove of his “cost of living” approach.

The new survey of 1,684 U.S. adults was conducted from Nov. 21 to Nov. 24 — just weeks after Democrats running on an “affordability” message swept every major 2025 race, from New York to New Jersey to Virginia. Trump initially responded to his party’s losses by insisting that America had “the greatest economy we’ve ever had” and dismissing voters’ concerns about the affordability crisis as “a scam by the Democrats.”

“I don’t want to hear about affordability,” the president said.

But Trump soon implemented a variety of policies—$2,000 rebate checks, 50-year mortgages, direct health care payments—in an attempt to ease the pressure on household budgets. His management even announced that it would cancel some agreements. tariffs and foreign products such as beef, tomatoes, bananas and coffee.

How does Trump compare to Biden on inflation?

But a new Yahoo/YouGov poll shows the president still has a lot of work to do on this issue. Of course, inflation has fallen from its Covid-era peak of 9% under former President Joe Biden; When Trump took office in January, this rate was hovering around 3%. The problem is that, despite Trump’s claim that “we don’t have inflation,” it remains at 3% today. Prices of produce, coffee, clothing, housing and electricity All are on the rise.

Meanwhile, Trump imposed broad new import taxes. Increased America’s overall average tariff rate to 18% — the highest level since 1934 — while increasing costs for U.S. households by $1,600 to $2,600 per year. based on with independent predictions.

As a result, 60 percent of Americans now say inflation is worsening; That matches the highest number recorded in nine Yahoo/YouGov polls conducted in the final two years of Biden’s presidency. Only 17 percent say inflation is getting better.

When those who think inflation is worsening are asked “which factor” is more responsible for it — “events the president cannot control” or “policies the president can control?” – Seven in 10 people (equivalent to 42 percent of Americans) say the latter. By comparison, only 33% of Americans said the same in November 2022, when Biden became president.

Meanwhile, the proportion of independents who say inflation is worsening and attribute the development to policies that the president can control has increased even more. 33%

in October 2022 and currently 47%.

After all, inflation may not be higher today than it was then. But more people think Trump is making the situation worse. Three years ago, 52% of Americans said Biden was “not doing enough” to solve the problem; 61 percent now say the same about Trump. Three years ago, 35 percent of Americans said Biden “deserves most of the blame for the current inflation”; 38% now say the same about Trump.

Weighing Trump’s economic policies

Trump’s tariffs remain generally popular. By a two-to-one margin, most Americans continue to say new import duties have a negative (52%) rather than positive (26%) impact on the U.S. economy in the short term. And two-thirds (66%) mostly agree with the statement that recent tariffs have “increased the amount I pay for goods and services”; This rate is much higher than the number of people who agree with the president’s arguments in favor of implementing them: “they increased” trillions of dollars They stated that they “as revenue for the U.S. government” (39%), that they “force other countries to treat the United States more fairly” (40%), and that they “force companies to produce in America instead of elsewhere” (47%).

Unsurprisingly, then, nearly all Americans with this view (77% of Americans overall) approve of the Trump administration’s decision. Recent decision to eliminate some tariffs on beef and other products. Only 7% disapprove; the rest (16%) are not sure. And while only 9% of Americans want “all” of the recent tariffs to remain, more than three-quarters would prefer to see “all” (38%) or “some” (38%) of them eliminated.

When it comes to Trump’s recent affordability proposals, only the idea of ​​”using revenue from recent tariffs to send out $2,000 rebate checks” has majority support (58%). Republicans are the most supportive (68%), but most Democrats (55%) and independents (52%) also favor the checks.

By contrast, the new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds little interest in 50-year mortgages, which “will lower monthly payments by spreading them out over two decades, but will also roughly double the amount of interest borrowers pay over the life of the loan.” After reading this statement, only 19% of Americans say they support the idea; 56 percent say they are against it. And only 8% say they would choose to get a 50-year mortgage.

Trump’s suggestion to avoid a looming increase in health insurance premiums — “putting money into an account where the public buys their own health insurance” — isn’t going over well. After reading that “subsidies that help make health insurance coverage more affordable for the nearly 20 million Americans who buy insurance through the Obamacare (ACA) marketplace” will “expire at the end of the year” — that is.Increase premiums by an average of 114%” — More than twice as many Americans (55%) say Congress should extend subsidies rather than not (23%).

Similarly, when presented with a choice, far more Americans (49%) would prefer to “extend existing subsidies to keep premiums from rising even if it means some people will have to continue buying insurance through ACA marketplaces” rather than “giving people a fixed amount of money to buy health insurance, even if that means it will result in less comprehensive coverage and higher deductibles for many people” (22%).

Even support for $2,000 tariff rebate checks comes with a caveat. When asked to consider other uses for tariff revenue, only 41% of Americans prefer checks; Overall, more people prefer either “paying off the national debt” (27%) or “financing government programs” (18%). And when told how much the tariffs are costing every U.S. household — again, “$1,600 to $2,600 a year, according to independent estimates” — Americans are divided on the best way to “put some of that money back into people’s pockets”; 43% prefer discount vouchers, and 42% simply “remove tariffs to lower prices.”

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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,684 U.S. adults interviewed online between November 21 and November 24, 2025. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential votes, party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets are from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted by the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democrat, 32% Republican). Participants were selected from YouGov’s inclusion panel to represent all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3%.