Trump is ‘very proud’ of US economy – many Americans aren’t so happy

Trump says it’s his economy now

President Trump told NBC the country is now in “the Trump economy.” The interview, taped in the Oval Office, aired during Super Bowl LX.

Asked when the Trump economy began, he said it is already here and that he is very proud of it. Trump predicted 2026 would be even better and pointed to factories and businesses being built across the country.

The claim marks a notable shift from where he stood just nine months ago.

A different tone from May 2025

Back in May 2025, Trump told “Meet the Press” that the economy’s good parts were his while the bad parts belonged to Biden.

At that time, the economy had just shrunk in the first quarter and Trump was defending his tariff rollout. By February 2026, he dropped that split and fully embraced the economy as his own.

The shift comes as Trump has launched a barnstorming campaign strategy ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.

Most Americans say they are struggling

A Pew Research Center survey of 8,512 adults in late January 2026 found 71 percent are very concerned about health care costs.

That same survey found 66 percent worry about food and consumer goods prices, and 62 percent about housing.

A separate Talker Research survey of 5,000 Americans found 87 percent believe the country is in a cost-of-living crisis.

More than half said they struggle to pay monthly bills on time, and half said they cannot afford basic needs like groceries.

Polls give Trump low economic marks

An NPR/Marist/PBS News poll from December 2025 found only 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, the lowest mark of either of his terms.

A CNN/SSRS poll from January 2026 found 55 percent say his policies have worsened economic conditions.

Pew’s survey told a similar story: 52 percent said Trump’s economic policies have made things worse, while 28 percent said better.

A CBS News/YouGov survey found fewer than one in five say his policies made them financially better off in 2025.

GDP claim does not match official data

Trump told NBC that GDP has grown 5.6 percent on his watch.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis recorded 4.4 percent annualized growth in the third quarter of 2025, the most recent official figure.

No quarter has topped 5 percent since 2021, when the economy was bouncing back from pandemic lockdowns.

A White House official told NBC that Trump meant an Atlanta Federal Reserve projection, which peaked at 5.4 percent, not 5.6 percent.

The official fourth-quarter data has not come out because a government shutdown disrupted data collection.

Inflation has dipped only slightly

When Trump took office in January 2025, the annual inflation rate sat at 3 percent. By December 2025, it had dipped to 2.7 percent, a modest decline.

Under Biden, inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022, the highest in four decades, before falling sharply through 2023 and 2024.

The Federal Reserve’s target remains 2 percent. Chair Jerome Powell said in December 2025 that inflation “remains somewhat elevated.”

That gap between the target and reality is one reason Americans say they feel squeezed.

$18 trillion investment figure questioned

Trump told NBC that $18 trillion is being invested in the United States. The White House’s own website listed the figure at $9.6 trillion at the time of the interview.

CNN found that total included vague pledges, statements about bilateral trade rather than direct investment, and commitments that predated Trump’s term.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated actual investment pledges from major trading partners at roughly $5 trillion.

The gap between the claim and the data has drawn attention from fact-checkers.

Job growth has slowed sharply

The U.S. economy created about 584,000 jobs in 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by NBC News. That is a steep drop from more than 2 million jobs added in both 2024 and 2023.

The unemployment rate rose from 4.0 percent when Trump took office to 4.6 percent by November 2025. Wage growth also cooled, slipping from 3.9 percent in January 2025 to 3.6 percent by December.

Those numbers set the stage for a growing debate over tariffs.

Tariffs push prices toward consumers

Trump’s tariff policies have pushed the effective tariff rate to 16. 8 percent, the highest level since 1935, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Economists say businesses absorbed much of the cost at first but are now passing price increases on to consumers.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics warned that delayed tariff pass-through could add to inflation by mid-2026.

A Supreme Court decision on whether the president had legal authority to impose tariffs without Congress is expected soon.

Americans say Trump has wrong priorities

A CNN/SSRS poll found 64 percent say Trump has not done enough to bring down everyday prices. Only 36 percent say he has had the right priorities, down from 45 percent near the start of his term.

Just one-third of Americans say they believe Trump cares about people like them, a drop from 40 percent in March 2025.

Two-thirds say Trump favors the wealthy over the middle class, according to the CBS News/YouGov survey.

Democrats won 2025 races on affordability

In off-year elections last November, Democrats won key races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York by focusing on affordability.

An NBC News poll that month found two-thirds of voters said Trump had not met expectations on inflation and cost of living.

Voters said they preferred Democrats to lead Congress by 8 points, the largest lead for either party in the NBC poll since the 2018 midterms.

Trump has responded by launching rallies in swing states to bring his economic message directly to voters.

Key economic data due Feb. 20

The Bureau of Economic Analysis expects to release its first estimate of fourth-quarter 2025 GDP on Feb. 20, 2026.

Economists at Deloitte project inflation could reach 3.2 percent in 2026 if tariffs stay elevated.

The Peterson Institute warned it could top 4 percent by year’s end because of tariff pass-through, tighter labor supply, and looser fiscal policy.

Polls show Americans pick the economy as their top concern by a nearly two-to-one margin over any other topic heading into the 2026 midterms.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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