About three out of five Americans have changed their grocery lists to stay within budget, as the high cost of living concerns the majority of Americans.
Sixty-one percent of Americans across the political spectrum say they’ve made changes to the items they purchase at the grocery store as prices remain high, according to a recent CNN poll.
Another 59 percent of those surveyed said they’ve cut back on extras and entertainment, while 44 percent said they significantly reduced how much they drive, 31 percent have put off medical treatments and 27 percent said they’ve taken on a second job just to make ends meet, according to the poll.
Other surveys also yielded similar results, solidifying the economy as one of the biggest concerns amongst Americans — a sign of trouble ahead for President Donald Trump and Republicans as midterm elections loom.
A recent Gallup poll found that only 16 percent of Americans feel the economy is currently excellent or good, while 76 percent believe economic conditions are worsening. Half of the respondents said conditions are poor, as the Iran war drives ongoing inflation and causes gas prices to soar.
Economic confidence has hit a four-month low, according to Gallup. Meanwhile, gas prices remain high nationwide, sitting at $4.45 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA.
About eight out of 10 voters across all political parties say the Trump administration is responsible for the price hike, according to polling by Fox News.
Those voters also blamed oil companies, government regulations and the war in Iran for the price hike.
Recent polls have also had troubling results for the president.
Sixty-three percent of Republicans approve of the Trump economy, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released last week. That’s down from roughly 80 percent approval in February, before the war in Iran.
In another poll, released last Thursday, just 36 percent of non-MAGA GOP respondents told Fox News they approved of the president’s economic record, while that number was 74 percent for MAGA loyalists.
In May, American consumer confidence fell to an all-time low, according to the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers.
Meanwhile, wholesale inflation in April climbed to its highest level since 2022, when the country was gripped with pandemic-era price hikes.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
The president has also brushed off consumer concerns tied to the ongoing Iran conflict.
“I don’t think about American financial situation — I don’t think about anybody,” the president told reporters at the White House earlier this month. “I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump’s top economic adviser on Thursday argued that Americans’ elevated spending is a sign of the country’s resilience.
“While people have been spending more money at gas stations, they’ve been spending more money on everything else, which means that they’re still very, very optimistic about the state of the economy, and they should be,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
“And so, despite this disruption, all the momentum that we built with ‘The Big Beautiful Bill’ and AI and everything else is really, you know, is what the main economic story in the U.S. is,” he said. “Think about it: We’ve got a capital spending boom, we’ve got a labor supply boom because of the ‘No Tax on Tips’…you know, [the] stock market is celebrating.”
Bartiromo asked when Americans could expect gas prices to come down in a “meaningful way,” and Hassett replied: “I think this thing can resolve itself much faster than people think,” without providing a clear timeline for when prices would decrease.
Source: independent.co.uk