Reuters Ipsos poll: 78 percent of Americans blame Trump's policies for rising costs

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published October 9 found that 78 percent of Americans blame President Donald Trump's policies for prices rising faster than their earnings. Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats named the cost of living their top concern as the country heads toward the November 3 midterm elections.

The discontent cuts into Trump's own base. Fifty seven percent of Republicans who voted for Trump said costs are growing faster than their paychecks. Sixty eight percent of all respondents said they were dissatisfied with Trump's handling of inflation, including 40 percent of Republicans. Trump's overall approval rating hit a record low of 32 percent in the survey.

Voter anger centers on import tariffs and on the war with Iran, which respondents associate with rising energy costs. The poll ranked the cost of living, Democratic values and immigration as the top three issues for voters in the midterms.

The survey covered 4,506 adults over six days ending October 5, with a margin of error of 2 percentage points. That is a large national sample by polling standards, and the findings were consistent across party lines on the central question: a bipartisan majority sees its paychecks losing ground and connects that loss to the president's policies.

The poll lands less than a month before the midterms, and cost of living is the issue both parties will have to answer for. For the White House, the numbers describe an economy story that has slipped from its grasp: even voters who supported Trump are telling pollsters their money does not go as far as it did. Whether that anger translates into votes on November 3 will decide how much of the next two years is spent fighting over prices.

Polls this far out from an election measure mood, not outcomes, and approval ratings have recovered before. But the breadth of the finding is what makes it hard to dismiss: when 78 percent of the country agrees on anything about the economy, and when the president's own voters report their paychecks losing ground, the issue owns the campaign season until something bigger displaces it.