The Trump administration’s insistence that inflation is fading and prices are dropping has run headfirst into a wall of cold, furious reality. A sprawling new CBS News/YouGov poll paints a devastating picture: Americans simply do not believe the president. Not Democrats. Not independents. Not even many Republicans.

For months, Trump has been touting what he calls an economic “resurgence,” repeatedly declaring that America is experiencing “almost no inflation,” that grocery costs are “way down,” and that his second-term economic policies have put the country “back on track.” He paints a Norman Rockwell fantasy of falling prices and revived prosperity.

But Americans—living in grocery aisles, gas stations, and rent markets, not inside the White House communications shop—say the president’s claims clash violently with the world they actually inhabit.

The poll delivers a brutal verdict: 60 percent of Americans say Trump describes prices and inflation as better than they really are.
Even more stunning: four in 10 Republicans agree.

This is not a partisan divide.
This is a credibility crisis.

A President at War With Lived Reality

The clash is stark. The poll shows Americans rating the economy at its lowest point of 2025. Only 32 percent say the economy is good, plunging from highs earlier in the year. Ratings for inflation are even worse.

And when respondents were asked about their experience with prices, the numbers were catastrophic for the administration:

• 58 percent say Trump’s policies are making food and grocery costs rise.
• 65 percent say his policies are causing price hikes more broadly.
• Only 11 percent believe Trump that things are cheaper.

That’s not a messaging problem.
It’s a trust problem.

Americans are not responding to press releases—they’re responding to their receipts.

Republican Fractures Deepen

The most alarming data point for the White House might be this: even inside Trump’s own party, only two in ten Republicans say grocery prices have dropped.

The rest? They’re telling pollsters the same thing Americans are shouting at the TV when Trump insists “everything is way down”:
It’s simply not true.

GOP officials have already been sounding alarms over Trump’s rhetoric clashing with the lived experience of their voters—especially in battleground states. The skepticism captured in the CBS poll reinforces what Republicans have been whispering for months: inflation is the one issue Trump cannot spin, cannot bulldoze, and cannot outrun.

The Numbers That Haunt the White House

The greatest political danger comes from independents, whose views have crashed Trump’s approval to its lowest point of his second term. The president’s economic approval has fallen to 36 percent, down from 51 percent in March.

• More than two-thirds disapprove of his handling of inflation.
• 64 percent disapprove of his handling of the economy overall.
• 60 percent disapprove of his overall job performance.

This is the kind of polling collapse that sinks midterms, fractures coalitions, and terrifies incumbents.

And yet Trump’s messaging remains stubbornly upbeat—some say delusional.

Earlier this month, Trump declared:
“Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down.”

But a Marquette University Law School poll showed the opposite: only 12 percent of Americans believe grocery prices have fallen over the last six months. A crushing 75 percent say they’ve risen.

The reality matches the math. Grocery prices were up 1.4 percent since Trump took office. The jump from July to August—a full 0.6 percent—was the largest monthly leap in three years.

When voters were asked what they see happening around them, they didn’t hesitate:

• 85 percent say groceries are higher than a year ago.
• Two-thirds say utilities, housing, and healthcare costs are all rising.

In other words: Trump’s claims aren’t just being rejected—they’re being annihilated.

The Gaslighting Backlash

The political danger for Trump isn’t just that people think he’s wrong—it’s that they think he’s lying.

When a president insists repeatedly that the prices people see every day are falling, he risks crossing the line from optimism into outright gaslighting. And Americans, especially independents, react harshly to leaders who appear to dismiss their lived struggles.

Voters don’t want a president who calls their pain fake news.

A Warning Shot Ahead of 2026

The poll results land at a perilous moment for the White House. Republicans are already panicking over ICE raids in purple states, AI controversies, and declining support among suburban families. Economic credibility was supposed to be Trump’s firewall—his strongest political weapon.

Now the wall is cracking.

The CBS/YouGov poll makes it unmistakable:

Americans are tired.
They are squeezed.
And they do not believe Donald Trump is telling them the truth.

As one Republican strategist privately put it:

“You cannot sell people an economy they don’t experience.”

Trump’s message is clear: inflation is low, prices are falling, America is thriving.
But the country’s message back is even clearer:

We’re not buying it.