Donald Trump has seen his ratings for handling the US economy fall, according to a new poll, with three quarters of Americans worrried about a recession.
As he approaches his 100th day in office, more than half of Americans say his approach to the economy, with his trade wars and piling pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, is “too erratic,” according to the Reuters/Ipsos survey.
With billions wiped off the value of shares, just 37% of respondents to the six-day US poll approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, down from 42% in the hours after his January 20 inauguration, when he promised to supercharge the economy and bring about a “Golden Age of America.”
“You have a president who promised a golden age,” said James Pethokoukis, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
“But everything that’s supposed to be up is down, everything that’s supposed to be down is up.”
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted just after Trump’s inauguration, some 55% of respondents said either inflation or the broader economy should be Trump’s main focus in his first 100 days in office, which run through to April 30.
Three months later, three-quarters of the respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said they worried a recession was coming.
Fifty-six percent of respondents, including one in four Republicans, said Trump’s moves to shake up the economy are “too erratic.”
Fifty-two percent of respondents said they agreed with a statement that “Trump’s actions could make it harder for me to live comfortably when I retire,” outnumbering the 31% who disagreed.
Trump has been calling for interest rates to be cut, saying the nation was on a path where “there can be almost no inflation.”
But Fed chairman Jerome Powell, like many Wall Street economists, has said that Trump’s moves to raise tariffs, including a new 145% tax rate on most Chinese imports, could push inflation higher at least in the short term, and possibly for longer.
Banking giant JP Morgan expects a recession this year, largely due to Trump’s tariff policy which has led other countries to put heavy levies on US exports.
Trump’s overall approval rating, though at 42%, remains higher than his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden enjoyed for much his term, and has been buoyed by a somewhat larger share of Americans, 45%, who back his hardline actions on immigration.
The president’s party also remains firmly behind him, with 81% of self-identified Republicans approving of Trump’s economic stewardship.
Forty-eight percent of respondents agreed that “most other countries, including America’s traditional allies, take advantage of the US” Thirty-four percent disagreed.
The poll surveyed 4,306 US adults nationwide between April 16 and April 21.
