(The Hill) — Roughly half of Americans say holiday gifts are harder to afford this season as shoppers wrestle with rising inflation and cost-of-living concerns, according to a new survey.
The Associated Press-NORC Research Center poll, released Friday, found that 63 percent of U.S. adults say they are experiencing higher prices than usual for gifts. That number is 6 points lower than a similar survey taken in 2022.
Affordability issues have risen as a top concern in recent weeks, following a slew of election victories for Democrats. The weight of the economic pressure has also soured President Trump’s approval rating.
A majority of U.S. adults in the latest AP-NORC survey, 68 percent, say the country’s economy is “poor,” which remains unchanged from this time last year.
“Prices are up. What can you do? You need to make more money,” Sergio Ruiz, 44, of Tucson, Ariz., told the AP.
Ruiz is using credit programs to afford gifts for his children this holiday season.
Others are frustrated with Trump for not addressing affordability concerns as quickly as he outlined on the campaign trail. Earlier this month, he received the lowest rating of both his first and second term for handling of the economy.
A separate AP poll, released Thursday, found just 31 percent of respondents said they approve of the president’s handling of the economy.
Amid the criticism, even from Republicans, Trump has cast much of the blame on former President Biden and Democrats.
“I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high when I came in. Prices are coming down substantially,” the president said Tuesday during a rally in Pennsylvania.
“Prices are all coming down. It’s been 10 months. It’s amazing what we’ve done. If you think of gasoline a gallon, they had it at $4.50, almost $5.00,” he told the crowd. “You go to some of the states, you had it at $6.00. We hit, uh, three states two days ago, $1.99 a gallon. When that happens, everything comes down.”
The recent poll shows 49 percent of Americans say gas prices are higher while 69 percent said the same of electricity costs and 87 of people said the same about groceries.
Democrats are leaning into the issue of affordability as a platform ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The AP-NORC survey was conducted from Dec. 4-8 among 1,146 people via telephone and online surveys. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.