Donald Trump Doesn’t Deserve Credit For Booming Economy, Say Majority Of Americans In New Poll
Donald Trump may be presiding over a booming economy, but that doesn’t mean that voters are willing to give him credit for it, Yahoo News reports. In fact, a new poll shows that a large percentage of Americans aren’t prepared to credit Trump with the economy or to even admit that they’ve benefited from it.
According to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, less than half of Americans — 47 percent — approve of how Trump has handled the economy. Only 40 percent approve of his handling of trade negotiations and taxes.
In fact, one rather large point of contention between Trump and the voters appears to be his tariffs. Already China’s response to the Trump administration tariffs has hurt American farmers, so much so that the administration has offered bailouts. Only 15 percent of Americans say the tariffs have helped or will help their families. Meanwhile, Trump continues to hint that more tariffs may be in the works, this time against European automakers.
Even Trump’s Republican supporters have doubts about his tariffs. Just 50 percent believe the tariffs will help the economy; that number is down from 70 percent who answered in August that they believed the tariffs would help the economy.
Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to step into North Korea Sunday, reaching across the demarcation line to shake hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The White House has released official photos of the event: https://t.co/gYjB7TqfKT pic.twitter.com/VZu3lTSC6Q
— ABC News (@ABC) July 1, 2019
The administration’s tax cuts are also getting mixed reviews. Just 17 percent of poll respondents said that they believed they had paid less in taxes since Trump’s tax cuts. In fact, according to recent economic data, a majority of Americans have indeed paid less in taxes since the tax cuts. The disconnect between voters’ perception of the results of the tax cuts and the actual result of the tax cuts may be because those cuts were so little that they weren’t noticed or that they were simply eaten up by higher expenses in other areas.
Christel Bastida, 39, said that the booming economy has left her and her family behind, in favor of the wealthy.
“I personally don’t feel more secure financially and I think that’s the case for a lot of people who are middle class. A lot of working-class people are not comfortable now. I know there were tax breaks that were supposed to be helpful to people, but it turns out they’re helpful to billionaires and corporations and I’m neither,” she said.
It’s a disconnect that Democratic presidential hopefuls want to capitalize on. During last week’s Democratic debates, nearly every candidate touched on the issue of income inequality, a problem that they blamed, at least partially, on Donald Trump.
