WASHINGTON (AP) – Concerns about everyday expenses contributed to the return of President-elect Donald Trump at the White House. But as he approaches his second term, many American adults are skeptical about his ability to cut costs.
Only about 2 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident that Trump will be able to make progress on reducing the cost of groceries, housing or health care this year, according to a survey by Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Centerwhile about 2 in 10 are “moderately” confident.
Confidence in Trump’s ability to create jobs is a bit higher — about 3 in 10 are extremely or very confident that the Republican will make progress in this area in 2025 — but the poll indicates that, despite his hardline stance, promises of lower pricesmany of his own supporters do not have much confidence in his ability to quickly ease the economic pressures that continue to worsen. frustrate many households.
These moderate expectations, however, have not dampened Republican hopes for a second Trump presidential term. And Democrats’ pessimism about his return to power is more muted than it was. when he left the White House in 2020. About 8 in 10 Republicans say Trump will be a “great” or “good” president in his second term, according to the poll.
A new poll asks Americans what their expectations are for President-elect Trump as he prepares to take office next week. AP correspondent Jennifer King reports.
And while Democrats’ assessments are much more negative — about 8 in 10 say he will be a “bad” or “terrible” president — they are less likely than them to say he will be a “terrible » president during his second term. at the end of his first.
Only about 3 in 10 are very confident in Trump’s handling of the economy.
Much of the 2024 presidential campaign revolved around prices — whether President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was responsible for inflation and whether Trump could fix it. AP VoteCast, an in-depth survey of voters and non-voters which aims to tell the story behind the election results, showed that about 4 in 10 voters in the November election identified the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the country and that about 6 in 10 of those voters voted for Trump.
However, as Trump takes office, the poll shows many Americans don’t expect he will be able to immediately cut costs. This includes some of his own supporters. Fewer than half of Republicans are at least “very” confident in Trump’s ability to make progress on reducing the costs of food, housing or health care, although about 6 in 10 are at least “very” confident in its ability to create jobs.
Confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the overall economic situation is also quite low. Only about a third of Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident in their ability to manage the economy and jobs. Nearly 2 in 10 people are “moderately” confident, and about half are “slightly confident” or “not at all confident.”
Here, Republicans are more confident in Trump’s abilities: About seven in ten Republicans are at least “very” confident in his ability to manage the economy in general.
But there are other policy areas where expectations for Trump are not high overall. Like the economy and jobs, about a third of Americans are at least “very” confident in Trump’s ability to handle immigration and national security, while about 2 in 10 are “very” confident in Trump’s ability to handle immigration and national security. moderately” confident and about half are “slightly” or “not at all confident.” at all” confident.
Health care is a particularly weak point for Trump
Americans are particularly skeptical of Trump’s ability to reduce health care costs or manage the health care issue, according to the poll. Only about 2 in 10 Americans are extremely or very confident in its ability to solve health care problems, and 16% are confident in its ability to make progress in reducing health care costs.
During the presidential campaign, Trump declared that he look at the alternatives to the Affordable Care Act. He has not proposed a concrete plan of what his changes to the health law would be, but he devoted a lot of energy during his first term to efforts to dismantle it, which ultimately failed.
Only about half of Republicans are extremely or very confident in Trump’s ability to manage health care, and about a third are at least very confident in his progress in reducing the cost of health care.
About half of Republicans expect Trump to have an ‘excellent’ second term
Trump’s approval rating remained stable four indictments, a criminal conviction And two assassination attemptsand the new survey shows that Americans’ expectations for his second term match their assessment of his first four years in office. Just under half of American adults expect Trump to be a “terrible” or “poor” president in his second term, a figure essentially unchanged from when he left the White House in 2021.
But Republicans are expecting even more from Trump this time, while Democrats’ fears seem a little more muted. About half of Republicans say they think Trump will be a “great” president during his second term, while about 4 in 10 Republicans described him as a great president at the end of his first term. Democrats still overwhelmingly expect Trump to be a “terrible” president, but that concern has waned. About 6 in 10 Democrats think Trump will be a bad president in his second term, compared with three-quarters who said he was a bad president at the end of his first term.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,147 adults was conducted Jan. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s AmeriSpeak probability panel, designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all adults is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
