(The Hill) Nearly half of Americans said the current condition of the U.S. economy is President Trump’s responsibility rather than his predecessor former President Biden, according to a new survey that was published on Friday.
The Gallup poll found that 46 percent of adults said that Trump is responsible for the current state of the nation’s economy, while another 27 percent of respondents blamed Biden.
Just over a fifth of respondents, 21 percent, held both leaders equally responsible, while five percent picked neither of the two men.
The results are similar to a previous iteration of a poll conducted in March. At the time, 43 percent pointed to Trump and 27 percent said Biden when asked about responsibility for the current state of the economy. Some 23 percent said neither.
Friday’s poll comes after Trump has blamed his predecessor for recent economic woes, including the backtracking of country’s gross domestic product and stock market turbulence sparked by his sweeping tariff agenda.
Those who said the state of the nation’s economy is either good or excellent are about equally split between Trump, 34 percent, and Biden, 37 percent.
Meanwhile, respondents who said the U.S. economy’s conditions are poor mainly directed their ire toward the current president, 66 percent. Only 14 percent casted blame on Biden, although 20 percent said neither or both, the poll found.
Most Democrats, 75 percent, blamed Trump for the current outlook of the economy. Among Republicans, the blame was spread between the two leaders. Around 55 percent blamed Biden and 21 percent picked the the current president, according to the survey.
Trump and his allies have reaffirmed the administration’s approach to trade, which included imposing tariffs on nearly all countries and raising the duty on goods coming from China to 145 percent.
Recently, the president has mentioned that tariffs could raise prices on goods, a point he has made earlier in the year.
“Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said during a Wednesday Cabinet meeting.
The survey was conducted from April 2-15 among 2,036 adults. The margin of error was four percentage points.
