Middle-class Americans who have been struggling to stay afloat amid constantly rising prices for basic necessities are losing faith in the ability of President Donald Trump's administration to lower the cost of living.
According to a Thursday article in the Wall Street Journal, this even includes people who voted for Trump in the 2024 election. The Journal observed that even though inflation is not where it was in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, prices for many commonly purchased items like coffee, ground beef and auto parts remain significantly higher in comparison to recent years.
"Life felt more doable a year and a half ago,” said Atlanta, Georgia resident Holly Frew, who told the Journal her combined household income is around $135,000. “I need to know where the light is at the end of the tunnel.”
The outlet cited Pew Research in describing the annual income range of the middle class, which can range from $66,000 to $200,000 depend on the locale. For Americans in this income cohort, wages have gone up over the last five years, though not enough to keep up with prices.
According to the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey, 44 percent of middle-class respondents said their financial situation is worse today than it was this time last year, while only 23 percent said their situation had improved. And among those 44 percent, they attributed their circumstances to higher prices.
This sentiment was also seen in a recent Fox News poll, which found that Trump not only had a record-high 58 percent disapproval rating, but that large majorities of respondents said that costs had either gone up slightly or significantly across various categories. Most respondents said their grocery and utility bills had seen the highest increase under Trump's second term, though more than half said the same of housing, healthcare and gasoline prices.
Connecticut resident Teri Kopp — who voted for Trump last year – told the Journal that she was "tired" of being unable to trying to afford the cost of living despite her combined household income of $115,000. Kopp is $15,000 deep in credit card debt that she took on to pay for medical expenses, and has also accumulated an additional $30,000 in student debt that she took on to pay for her daughter's undergraduate degree in biology. Kopp's daughter has yet to land a job offer.
She told the outlet that she and her husband often sit in the dark with strips of LED lights in order to save money on utility costs., and was considering painting rocks to send to family members this Christmas instead of buying gifts.
The Journal's Rachel Louise Ensign and Rachel Wolfe further reported that while Kopp generally "approves" of the job Trump is doing during his second term, she's still "skeptical" that he'll be able to follow through on his promise to bring down costs.
"I think Trump has a hard nut to crack to bring all this stuff down," Kopp said.
Click here to read the Journal's article in its entirety (subscription required).