Topline
An overwhelming majority of Americans are worried about inflation as concerns about tariffs stalled progress in bringing price increases down to a more palatable level – and the starkest impact of tariffs has likely yet to show up meaningfully in data.
Tariffs have not yet meaningfully affected broader inflation data, but the levies will soon cause ... More
Some 87% of Americans are somewhat or very concerned about rising inflation, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey of 4,306 adults conducted in late April, shortly after Trump paused his most aggressive “Liberation Day” country-by-country tariffs.
Just 32% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of inflation, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared to 56% who disapprove.
Respondents were divided heavily along party lines, as just 4% of Democrats approve of Trump on inflation compared to 25% of independents and 71% of Republicans.
Other polling also indicates sustained concerns about inflation.
An annual April survey from Gallup revealed inflation was Americans’ top financial concern for the fourth year in a row – and the University of Michigan’s inflation expectation survey peaked at a 44-year high this spring.
Inflation data was largely benign during 2025’s first half despite the angst propelled by economist warnings of significantly higher prices as import taxes increased more than 700%. The most commonly cited measure of inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index, cooled to a four-year low of 2.3% by April, rising slightly to 2.4% in May, the last month for which data is available. The Federal Reserve’s pet measure of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, dipped from 2.9% in December to 2.7% in May, though it still remains above the Fed’s long-held 2% goal.
Trump has misleadingly and repeatedly celebrated this steady decline in annual price increases as proof of “NO INFLATION,” but experts believe the impact of tariffs will soon materialize. Goldman Sachs economists predict core PCE inflation will shoot up more than half a percentage point to 3.4% by December, the highest rate since 2023.
4.25% to 4.5%. That’s where the Fed-determined interest rates have stood all of 2025, higher than they were from 2008 to 2022, bookending the Great Recession and the post COVID-19 inflation surge. The central bank’s refusal to bend to Trump’s demands to take the growth-friendly move of dramatically lowering rates, instead urging caution on the impact of tariffs on inflation, has made the Fed and its top official Jerome Powell primary enemies of Trump during his second term.