8 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump on inflation. That’s extremely rare for a president

By Aaron Blake, CNN

(CNN) — We don’t yet know how the 2026 midterm elections will shake out.

What we can say right now is that President Donald Trump’s handling of inflation is a historic liability — the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in modern American politics.

As many as 8 in 10 Americans now disapprove of Trump on that issue. That’s more than disapproved of presidents for wars gone wrong, botched crisis responses and even major scandals like Watergate.

A new AP-NORC poll on Thursday was the latest ugly data point for Trump. It showed Americans disapproved of him on cost-of-living issues by a stunning margin: 82% to 17%.

It’s rare to get even 70% of Americans to agree on anything political. But Trump has managed to unite 8 in 10 Americans against his handling of one of the country’s most important issues.

And this poll isn’t just some outlier. Here’s a brief recap of recent polls on this issue:

• Three recent polls have shown Trump’s approval rating on this dropping into the teens — AP-NORC (17%), Reuters-Ipsos (17%) and Marquette Law School (19%).
• Three have also shown at least 80% disapprove — AP-NORC (82%), Marquette (80%) and a CNN poll (80%).
• The AP-NORC, Reuters-Ipsos, Marquette Law School and CNN poll all show at least 50% of Republicans disapproved.
• 29% of self-described MAGA Republicans disapproved, according to a Fox News poll.
• 43% of people who otherwise said they approved of Trump disapproved of him on inflation, per the CNN poll.
• Between 63% and 72% of White people without college degrees disapproved in these polls, despite that being perhaps Trump’s signature demographic.

The level of disapproval on such a major issue has few precedents, though George W. Bush did face a 77% disapproval rating in a CBS News/New York Times poll for his handling of the economy near the end of his term after the 2008 financial crisis. In 1980, the same pollster showed Jimmy Carter’s disapproval on that issue peaking at 74% amid high unemployment and inflation.

One of the likeliest culprits for such high disapproval numbers would seem to be war. And those have been very unpopular. But not as unpopular as Trump’s handling of the cost of living. George W. Bush’s disapproval rating on the Iraq war peaked around 70%. Disapproval of Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan peaked around two-thirds. And the Vietnam war led Lyndon Johnson to scrap his reelection bid in 1968, but his disapproval rating on the issue was only in the 60s.

In fact, the highest disapproval rating for a war appears to be Trump’s latest numbers on the Iran war. The CNN poll showed 73% disapproved of his handling of that.

When it comes to crises, as many as 64% disapproved of Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, and Carter’s disapproval amid the Iran hostage crisis climbed into the mid-50s. Even Trump’s handling of the January 6 attack on the Capitol (67% in CNN polling) wasn’t as lopsided as Trump and inflation right now.

As far as scandals, Ronald Reagan’s disapproval on the Iran-Contra affair reached as high as 69% in a January 1987 Washington Post-ABC News poll. And at the height of Watergate, as many as 71% of Americans disapproved of Richard Nixon on domestic issues. (We don’t have good approval polling from back then on Watergate, specifically.)

Speaking of Nixon, pardons have also tested Americans’ tolerance. But even Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon — which was supposed to have crippled Ford politically — only saw a disapproval rating in the 50s, according to polls compiled by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

Indeed, about the closest Trump got previously to 80% disapproval on a major issue was another controversial set of pardons: his pardons of violent January 6 defendants last year. A Pew Research Center poll showed 74% of Americans disapproved of that.

You might be noticing a trend here. Many of the issues with the highest presidential disapproval ratings involve the same president: Trump. That includes the Iran war, the January 6 Capitol attack and the related pardons. But the disapproval he faces on inflation surpasses all of those issues.

You could perhaps understand why Republicans are suddenly anxious to pass legislation on affordability before the election.

Trump in a new Time magazine interview published Thursday said Americans shouldn’t hold him responsible for their affordability problems and again blamed inflation on Biden. (This despite inflation being higher today than it was when Trump took over last year.)

But the AP-NORC poll is the latest to suggest that strategy won’t work. It shows 65% of Americans blamed Trump’s policies for high prices more so than factors beyond his control. That number for Biden just before the 2022 midterm elections was much lower: 44%.

Perhaps Trump’s party can still do OK in the upcoming midterms. But if it does, it will be despite historic dissatisfaction with the president on voters’ clear No. 1 issue.

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