I'll gather current data on how Americans are faring to give you a balanced answer.
Whether Donald Trump is improving lives of Americans is disputed and depends on the metric used. Polling and economic data in 2025-2026 show a mixed picture, with more Americans saying his policies have hurt than helped.
What polls show
•A July 2025 AP-NORC poll found 49% of adults felt Trump's policies had done more to hurt them, while 25% felt they had helped and another quarter said they had not been impacted.
•Overall job approval in 2026 is low. Polls in September 2026 put approval between about 29% and 39%:
•A Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll Sept. 23, 2026 put approval at 33% with 63% disapproving
•An NPR/PBS/Marist poll around the same time found 39% approve, 53% disapprove
•Averaged across major pollsters, approval was around 37.3% and disapproval around 60.2%
•A Reuters/Ipsos poll Sept 21, 2026 found approval fell to 32%, the lowest of his political career
•Approval on cost-of-living is even lower. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 17% of Americans approved of Trump's handling of the cost of living, and that issue was identified as the most important factor for the November midterm elections.
Economy, jobs and wages
Supporters point to continued job creation, while critics point to slower growth and flat real wages.
•The U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May 2026, beating expectations, with unemployment steady at 4.3%. The three-month average rose to 188,000 jobs per month.
•Longer-term job creation has been slower. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported only 273,000 new jobs were created between March 2025 and March 2026, later revised down by 79,000 to just under 200,000. One analysis calculated total nonfarm employment rose by only 369,000 jobs between January 2025 and March 2026, compared with 1,565,000 jobs added during the final fourteen months of Biden's presidency.
•Wage growth has not clearly outpaced inflation. Annual wage growth cooled to 3.4% in May 2026, while Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid warned inflation had likely risen to around 3.5%. This means real wages — wages adjusted for cost of living — were essentially flat or negative.
•The New York Times reported in mid-August 2026 that during July consumer prices outpaced workers' earnings, which meant that for the fourth month in a row Americans' real wages declined.
•Manufacturing has been a weak spot. One analysis said since the start of Trump's second term the U.S. manufacturing sector has lost 102,000 jobs.
Cost of living and tariffs
Cost of living remains a top concern.
•As of June 2026, regular gasoline averaged $4.22 per gallon nationally, with diesel at $5.38, driven partly by energy costs tied to the Iran conflict.
•The Joint Economic Committee reported that as of August 2026 the average household had to pay an additional $4,200+ for goods and services due to rising costs under President Trump.
•Estimates of tariff costs for households vary:
•The nonpartisan Tax Foundation projects tariffs will cost the average U.S. household $1,300 in 2026
•A congressional Democrats study warned the import taxes will cost American households an average of $2,512 in 2026, up 44% from $1,745 last year
The White House counters that inflation has cooled, real wages have risen, and trillions in investments continue pouring in, and that America's average tariff rate increase has not derailed growth.
Claims of improvements cited by the administration
The White House says Trump has delivered:
•A claim that he engineered a blue-collar boom with lower taxes, more factories, and trillions in new investment, and is the first president in modern history to actually lower prescription drug prices — delivering the biggest drop in 63 years.
•Drug-price actions: an executive order May 12, 2025 aimed at aligning U.S. prices with those in comparable countries, letters to 17 drug manufacturers July 31, 2025, and a deal with Pfizer announced Sept 30, 2025, including Pfizer pledging $70 billion in U.S. manufacturing investment. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated savings from the "most-favored-nation" agreements at $529 billion over the next decade.
•On crime/immigration: The share of Americans viewing crime as a "very" serious issue fell by nearly 15% in 2025, which the administration attributes to its immigration and crime approach.
How Americans perceive the overall impact
Polls suggest a partisan divide:
•In July 2025, 58% disapproved of Trump's job overall and 40% approved, with 78% of Republicans approving and 91% of Democrats disapproving.
•About three-quarters of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of the economy, immigration, government spending, health care, taxes, trade and other issues, while about 9 in 10 Democrats disapprove.
•Few Black adults or Hispanic adults think Trump's policies have helped them compared with about a third of white adults. Seven in 10 Black adults and 6 in 10 Hispanic adults feel Trump's policies have done more harm than good.
In summary, headline jobs numbers and some administration initiatives point to improvements cited by supporters, while polling, real-wage data, and independent cost estimates show many Americans feel affordability has not improved or has worsened — with views heavily divided by party and demographic group.