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A Reuters/Ipsos poll reports that 78% of U.S. adults surveyed said the White House bore at least some blame for prices rising faster than earnings. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats also named the cost of living as a leading concern ahead of the November 3, 2026 midterm elections. These are voters’ views and reported experiences—not a finding that Trump policies caused a particular share of inflation.
What the October poll found
Reuters reported the results on October 9, 2026. In the nationwide online survey of 4,506 U.S. adults, 78% said at least some blame for rising prices outpacing earnings lay with the White House. The report also found that 64% of Republicans and 76% of independents assigned at least some blame there. The available story does not give the corresponding figure for Democrats.
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Views of household costs were similarly pointed: 54% said the cost of living had increased a lot over the past year, 30% said it had increased a little, and 10% said it was unchanged. Separately, 68% of all respondents and 40% of Republicans said they were dissatisfied with Trump’s handling of inflation.
On personal spending, 63% said they ate out less often and 56% said they spent less on entertainment or streaming. Those answers describe reported behavior; they do not establish that inflation caused each respondent to cut back.
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What “blame” means—and what it does not prove
The poll measures attribution: whether respondents believed the White House deserved some responsibility for prices rising faster than earnings. It does not identify the cause of price changes, estimate the effect of a specific policy, or show how much of inflation resulted from any one factor.
Reuters discussed tariffs, war-related global energy costs, and other policy and market conditions as context. They are possible contributors discussed in the story, not causal findings produced by this survey. Prices and household budgets can be affected by multiple forces, and a poll of public opinion cannot separate their effects.
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How Republicans and the administration responded
Cost concerns crossed party lines, though the reported subgroup results vary. Reuters said 57% of Trump’s Republican supporters felt costs had grown faster than their paychecks. That finding is consistent with Republican concern about affordability, but it does not mean every Republican blamed Trump’s policies: the reported 64% figure covers Republicans who assigned the White House at least some blame for rising prices outpacing earnings, a distinct question.
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Reuters quoted Jeffrey Talley, a 65-year-old retired bank examiner and registered Republican from Mission Hills, Kansas, saying he was “pretty much against all the nonsense that’s going on in the Middle East with the Iran war, and pushing up the price of gasoline … that’s been very disheartening.” His account illustrates one voter’s view; it is not representative evidence.
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White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers offered the administration’s response by email: “The president has delivered tangible wins for American families.” The Reuters report also included the administration’s claim that Trump ended the previous administration’s inflation crisis. These are the administration’s assertions, not conclusions established by the poll.
How to read the poll’s limits
Reuters described the October survey as online, nationwide, and conducted over six days, with responses completed on the Monday before the October 9 story. The reported margin of error was 2 percentage points for all Americans and 3 points for Republicans, Democrats, and independents. The story did not provide exact fieldwork start and end dates or the October questionnaire, so the full wording and context for each question cannot be independently assessed from the reported material.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted May 15–18, 2026 found that 74% said the cost of living was on the wrong track and 73% disapproved of Trump’s handling of the issue. Ipsos said that May survey used its probability-based KnowledgePanel and included 1,271 nationally representative U.S. adults aged 18 or older; its reported margin of sampling error was ±2.8 points at 95% confidence. Those are May poll details, not October methodology. Because the polls were conducted at different times and the October report does not supply its full questionnaire, their results should not be treated as a direct like-for-like trend comparison.
What the findings say about household finances
The October results point to widespread concern that everyday costs are rising faster than pay, including among many Republicans and independents. The reported cutbacks in dining out and entertainment suggest that respondents are adjusting some discretionary spending, but the poll does not show the size of those adjustments, their effect on household budgets, or whether a specific policy caused them.
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For personal-finance decisions, the poll is best read as a snapshot of sentiment and self-reported experience—not as a forecast of prices or a measure of any household’s actual inflation rate. Individual costs depend on what a household buys, where it lives, and how its income and spending have changed.
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