'It’s just insane': Three-time Trump voter unloads over soaring costs

A three-time voter for President Donald Trump says soaring grocery bills and other everyday expenses have left her disappointed with his second term, as a new poll shows widespread frustration over the cost of living.

Bethany Lnenicka, aged 41 and running a small farm in Fairfax, Iowa, told The Associated Press that increasing prices are still affecting household budgets. “Groceries are just like kind of out of control. It seems like everything is going up,” Lnenicka said, continuing: “It’s just one thing, and the next week it’s another thing. It’s just insane. And of course your income doesn’t go up.”

Lnenicka, a political independent who generally votes Republican and has previously supported Trump on three occasions, stated that she had anticipated his return to the White House to be more similar to his first term. She told the AP that she just doesn't feel it has improved much.

Her remarks come at a time when an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows that only 17 percent of American adults approve of Trump's management of the cost of living, while his overall approval rating on the economy is 26 percent, which is a new low according to the survey.

Around 65 percent of Americans believed that Trump's policies are more to blame for the consistently high prices than factors beyond his control, and about seven out of ten thought that his management of the cost of living was worse than they had expected.

Dissatisfaction has now spread to Trump's own party; according to the poll, about six out of ten Republicans disapprove of the way he has handled the cost of living, whereas about half did so in April. Additionally, around half of the Republicans stated that Trump's performance regarding living costs has been worse than they had expected.

Worries regarding essential expenses have also gone up. Approximately half of U.S. adults now say that they are either extremely or very worried about their ability to afford gasoline, which is an increase from 39 percent in July. Likewise, a comparable proportion have voiced great concern about paying for food.

Pedro Sanchez, who is 52 and works in law enforcement in California, told the AP that his disposable income is now much smaller due to the increasing costs.

In 2024, Trump put a strong emphasis on the issue of inflation, criticizing both former President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris while promising voters that prices would be lower. Since then, his popularity on economic matters has dropped by 14 percentage points from March 2025.

The AP-NORC poll covered 2,140 adults between September 24 and 28 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points; the results are coming in weeks before the midterm elections, when control of Congress will be in question.