Majority of Americans uneasy over Trump's economic plan: WSJ poll

Over half of Americans, 52 percent, disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the economy, marking a 12 percent uptick from his approval in October 2024.

In a survey a published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, just a quarter of people said they approve of Trump's handling of the economy during his first 100 days in office.

Although the survey was conducted prior to Trump's announcement of a 10-percent base tax on all goods coming into the U.S. earlier this week, the president has promised to implement sweeping tariffs since his presidential campaign.

Fifty-four percent of voters, per the survey, said they are against the president’s levies on imported goods while 42 percent of survey respondents said they supported the measure.

Friday marked the second day of serious losses on the stock market since Trump announced the tariffs on Wednesday. The Dow plunged more than 2,100 points on Friday alone.

Thirty-five percent of survey participants said short-term strain will lead to financial gains in the long run in contrast.

But more Americans, 48 percent, say consumers will feel little economic pain before seeing improvements from tariffs.

“American voters give a president a little grace at the beginning,” said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who conducted the Journal survey with Republican Tony Fabrizio. “They can have high anxiety about his economic policy and tariffs, and also say they want to wait and see. I think that’s where people are.”

The Journal survey was conducted from March 27-April 1 with 1,500 registered voters contacted via text. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.