By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

(CNN) — Concerns about the nation’s economy have grown in the first months of President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, as few Americans see his policies as having helped economic conditions and 55% say his cuts to federal programs will do economic harm.

Americans split evenly over whether economic conditions a year from now will be good (49%) or poor (51%), but the share saying they expect the economy to be in bad shape a year from now is up 7 points since January, just before Trump took office. Jitters on Wall Street about Trump’s economic policies have sent the stock market into a decline, and Trump has given mixed messages on whether he believes it’s possible the economy is headed into a recession.

About half of the public, 51%, say they think Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions and just 28% that they have improved things. Another 21% say they’ve had no effect on the economy.

Trump’s approval rating for handling the economy – broadly seen as the country’s most pressing problem – mirrors his overall approval rating (45% approve overall, 44% on the economy), a departure from the pattern seen in his first term where perceptions of his handling of the economy were nearly always more positive than those of his presidency overall. Trump scores similar reviews for his handling of inflation (44% approve) and helping the middle class (43% approve). And only 39% approve of the way he’s handling tariffs, his lowest approval rating across 11 issues tested in the poll.

The poll suggests though that even as some indicators of confidence have emerged under Trump, measures on views of the economy are stagnant. Findings released earlier from the same poll find a growing share saying things in the US are going well (35%, up from 29% in January), but the share calling the economy good has held steady (28%, the same as in January).

People’s satisfaction with their personal finances is up compared with the summer of 2023, and fewer now say they’re cutting back on driving or having trouble finding affordable housing. But about 7 in 10 say they’re changing the groceries they buy to stay within budget and roughly two-thirds say that they’ve had to cut back on extra spending, similar to two years ago.

Some of this change is driven by the partisan shift in views of the economy that happens any time the presidency moves from one party to the other. Even as the overall assessment of the economy has held steady, for example, Democrats and Republicans have switched places on it. Before Trump took office in January, 48% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans said they thought economic conditions in the US were good, and now, 48% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats feel that way. Views among independents have held steady and remain deeply negative: 22% now say the economy is good and 78% that it’s poor, about the same as in January.

But the shift in outlook for the future suggests that any economic optimism Trump may have inspired in Democrats and independents is diminishing. Republicans are about as likely as they were in January to say they expect the economy to be in good shape one year from now (88% now, 85% in January), but among independents (54% in January, 41% now) and Democrats (31% in January, 18% now) those numbers have fallen precipitously.

Impact of federal government cuts

Americans expect negative repercussions specifically due to Trump’s cuts to federal programs. Most (55%) say they think those cuts will hurt the US economy, and nearly as many say the cuts will have a direct negative impact on their family (51%) or on the area where they live (52%). Only about a third of Americans say they expect those cuts to help the economy (34%), and fewer expect that they will have a positive impact on their family or community (22% each).

Asked to describe how Trump’s cuts might affect their families, respondents who see the cuts as more of a help often focused on reduced taxes (25% mentioned the impact on taxes as a positive) and how those shifts in spending could eventually help the economy. Said one respondent, “Cut federal spending, eventually taxes and cost of living.” And another, “Hopefully with all the fraudulent money being recovered they can use that money to strengthen our economy and get us out of debt.”

But on the flip side, the larger group that see negative personal impacts from the cuts highlighted a range of concerns including increased costs, mental anguish and personal job loss. Many (14%) cited negative impacts to Medicare, Medicaid or health care more broadly, 13% mentioned impacts on prices and the cost of living, and 9% mentioned the impact on Social Security or their retirement savings. One respondent wrote, “Gas prices will go up, groceries will go up, businesses will slow down [due] to uncertainty including the one I work at, and I’m pretty sure my 401k will suffer.”

Another reported that what they’ve experienced so far is, “Stress, depression, hopelessness, fear. Mainly psychological so far but we’re old enough to think we’re watching the end of our democracy in our lifetimes.”

Several expressed very specific concerns about direct impacts. Wrote one respondent, “I hike and hunt in national forest. Which I think will not be up kept as well as in the past. And as a parent I fear what will happen if/when he guts the department of education. My father is 100% disabled veteran and wondering what will happen to his care from the VA.”

Demographic and partisan shifts

The poll also finds a notable drop in economic optimism among younger adults, a voting bloc where exit polls in the 2024 election found Trump making up some ground compared with other recent Republican candidates for president. Among those age 18-34, the share expecting economic conditions to be in good shape a year from now has dipped from 54% in January to 43% now. Younger adults do tend to be more Democratic than older adults, but the shift within this age group appears to come across party lines even as older Republicans have become more confident in the nation’s economic outlook.

Americans in the youngest age group are generally less satisfied than older Americans with their personal finances (36% among those younger than 35 are satisfied, compared with majorities age 50 or older) and are significantly more likely to have made changes to their grocery buying or cut their non-essential spending as a result of recent economic conditions.

Nearly all Democrats (86%) and most independents (57%), say that Trump’s policies have worsened the economy, while just 10% of Republicans say the same. About 6 in 10 Republicans (61%) say the president’s policies have improved economic conditions, with 30% saying they’ve had no effect.

Broad majorities of Democrats see Trump’s cuts to federal programs as hurtful to themselves, their area and the US economy more broadly (more than 8 in 10 say they will hurt each of those areas). Republicans are more mixed, expressing broad optimism about the effect of the cuts on the economy (74% say they will help), but less confidence that they will have a positive impact on their families (48%) or communities (47%), although most don’t expect outright negative effects from either.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from March 6-9 among a random national sample of 1,206 US adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among all adults have a margin of sampling error of ±3.3 percentage points.

CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy and Edward Wu contributed to this report.

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