Survey finds about 23 percent of Republicans say they are worse off financially since President Donald Trump returned to office

A new Financial Times/Focaldata survey released as President Donald Trump begins the second year of his current term found that a minority of Republicans say their financial standing has deteriorated since he took office again. The poll, conducted Aug. 7-11, asks respondents to assess how their own finances have changed since the start of the second Trump term.

According to the results, 23 percent of Republicans said they are worse off financially since the second Trump term began. The poll also reported that 24 percent of Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 said they believe they are worse off, indicating a similar share among the president’s 2024 voter base.

The survey frames the question around respondents’ personal financial experience rather than macroeconomic indicators. The Hill reported the findings in connection with broader debate over how households are experiencing the current economic environment and how voters evaluate the performance of the second Trump administration.

The poll’s timing, Aug. 7-11, places it after the start of the second term and during a period when the administration has continued to make changes that affect federal policy areas tied to household costs, including regulation, enforcement, and tax and budget decisions. The survey does not, however, attribute respondents’ answers to any specific policy change or to a particular category of government action.

While the results show a substantial minority reporting financial declines, they also indicate that most Republicans and most Trump 2024 voters did not give a “worse off” answer. The underlying distribution among other response options was not detailed in the report published by The Hill, which limited how much can be said about whether respondents instead reported being better off, about the same, or unsure.

The survey results are poised to be used in political messaging around economic performance, but the poll itself remains descriptive and is not evidence of causation. As the administration continues to implement policy through agencies and Congress, additional polling could help track whether public assessments of personal finances shift over time.