Trump betrays workers as 82% of Americans blame him for prices
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
An AP-NORC poll shows 82% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump on inflation, proving his regressive policies have betrayed the working class he claimed to protect.
Donald Trump promised a populist paradise. Instead, he delivered a price hike. An AP-NORC poll shows 82% of Americans disapprove of him on inflation. This is not just a bad poll. It is a verdict on a second term that has crushed the cost of living. Trump is wrong to claim he is not responsible. His policies are the engine of this misery.
The bill for corporate greed
The numbers are a scream from the working class. According to apnorc.org, 65% of adults say higher prices result from Trump’s policies. This is the same logic as the Taxes and Jobs Act of 2017. That law favored the rich and left the vulnerable to struggle. Now, the bill has come due.
Trump has used tariffs as a weapon. He claims they protect us. In reality, they act as a tax on the people who can least afford it. CNN reports that 80% of Americans disapprove of his handling of inflation. He is not fighting for the worker. He is protecting the donor.
A blueprint for systemic collapse
I grew up in Flint. I remember the Financial crisis of 2007-2008. I saw the houses on my block vanish. This current crisis and the Financial crisis of 2007-2008 share a mechanism. Concentrated financial interests and regulatory failure lead to a systemic collapse. This devastates the working class while the architects of the disaster escape accountability.
In 2008, it was predatory lending and a lack of rules. Today, it is a trade regime that pours gasoline on the fire of corporate greed. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic inflation. Then, as now, corporations posted record profits while families exhausted their savings. Trump has not broken these monopolies. He has given them cover.
The populist mask slips
Axios reports that Trump's overall economic approval has sunk to 26%. Even his own base is fracturing. A Fox News poll shows 29% of self-described MAGA Republicans disapprove of him on inflation.
The numbers for white people without college degrees are even more stark. Between 63% and 72% of them disapprove of his inflation record. These are the people he told he would save. He promised them a return to a golden age. Instead, he gave them a higher grocery bill.
In 2022, 44% of voters blamed Joe Biden's policies for high prices during the COVID-19 pandemic inflation. Trump is facing a much deeper fury. He is not just fighting a trend. He is fighting the reality of the checkout line.
The cost of a lie
A CBS News/New York Times poll showed George W. Bush faced a 77% disapproval rating for his economy. Jimmy Carter’s disapproval on the economy peaked at 74% in 1980. History predicts that this level of economic fury leads to a ballot-box reckoning. For this to differ, the administration would need to deliver immediate, structural relief to the working class.
The most ardent defenders of the administration argue that these prices are a hangover from the previous era. Trump himself told Time magazine that "Americans shouldn’t hold him responsible for their affordability problems" and blamed inflation on Biden. But the math does not lie. Inflation is higher on Oct 1, 2026, than it was when Trump took office last year.
The public knows the truth. Only 17% of adults approve of his handling of inflation. He has spent his second term serving the concentrated interests of the wealthy. He has left the working class to pay the price. The record is clear. 46% of adults feel worse off since his return. This is the result of a government that views the vulnerable as an afterthought.
Donald Trump will try to shift the blame. He will use cultural wedges to distract from the empty cupboards. But you cannot eat a slogan. Justice requires a total reversal of these regressive policies. It requires breaking the monopolies that gouge us. Until then, the only place for this administration is in the rearview mirror of the next election.