Voters say economy rigged for wealthy as Trump earns low marks

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

A majority of American voters, including more than 4 in 10 Republicans, say the economy is rigged to favor the wealthy, according to a new national poll.

The finding, from a Fox News poll, comes as voters give President Donald Trump low marks on the economy and inflation.

Just 33% approved of his handling of the economy and 27% approved of his handling of inflation. Asked to rate economic conditions generally, 41% called them “poor” and 35% “only fair,” while 21% said “good” and 3% “excellent.”

Underlying those marks is a broader conviction about the economy. The poll asked voters to choose between two statements about America today: that people who work hard have a fair chance of getting ahead, or that even if people work hard, the system is rigged to favor the wealthy. Sixty-five percent chose the second, while 35% said hard work still offers a fair shot. Among Republicans, 42% said the system is rigged, along with 70% of independents and 84% of Democrats.

The sentiment comes as most voters report financial strain. Three-quarters said inflation had caused hardship for their family over the past six months, and 34% called it a “serious hardship.”

Those with less money felt the strain more acutely. Half of voters earning less than $50,000 a year called it serious, compared with 18% of those earning more than $100,000.

Democrats and independents were also more likely than Republicans to report serious hardship, at 42% each versus 23%.

The hardship voters describe comes with still-elevated prices, although the latest data showed some cooling. Consumer prices rose 3.5% in the 12 months ending June, down from 4.2% a month earlier, and fell 0.4% in June alone, the largest one-month decline since April 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Energy costs remained up 15.7% over the year.

The national average price of gas was $4.09 a gallon on July 23, up from $3.16 a year earlier, according to AAA.

Such feelings are not new. The Harris Poll has measured public alienation nearly every year since 1966 through an index tracking whether Americans feel those in power hear and address their interests. In a June 2023 Harris Poll survey, 79% agreed that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” – a separate but related measure.

Karlyn Bowman, who tracks public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, said such sentiment has “almost always crossed partisan lines” and that responses to rigged-system questions “are always high.”

She attributed the intensity to inflation and to lasting impressions of the two parties.

“The Republicans have long been thought of as the party of the rich and the Dems the party of the working class,” she told The Center Square. “Those impressions still linger.”

The poll’s findings on the two parties echoed those impressions. Seventy percent of voters said the Republican Party is closely tied to elite interests, compared with 55% who said the same of the Democratic Party.

The White House defended the president’s economic record.

“Since he took office, President Trump’s economic agenda has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, raised real wages, turned around [former President Joe] Biden’s manufacturing job decline, secured trillions in investments, lowered prescription drug prices, and reduced America’s goods trade deficit,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Center Square. “The entire Trump administration is focused on delivering more economic progress for the American people.”

Federal data show real average hourly earnings were essentially flat over the past year, at $11.32 in June, up 0.1% from $11.31 a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Voters were more divided on what, if anything, to do about it. Nearly half, 46%, said they were “OK with it, that’s how our economy works,” while 23% said income differences “stink” but that government should stay out. Three in 10 said the gap makes them angry and that government should act.

The Fox News poll was conducted July 17-20, 2026, under the joint direction of Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research. It surveyed 1,003 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.