Trump's State of the Union left some viewers unconvinced that he'll lower cost of living, CNN poll finds

[SunSeeker]

President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address drew largely positive marks from a heavily Republican audience, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

But it didn’t fully convince significant shares of even that friendly audience that he’s focusing on the nation’s most important problems or that he’ll lower the cost of living.

Good marks from speech-watchers are typical for presidential addresses to Congress, which tend to attract generally friendly audiences that disproportionately align with presidents’ own parties. In CNN’s speech reaction polls, which have been conducted most years dating back to the Clinton era, audience reactions have always been positive.
...
Speech-watchers were about evenly split on whether Trump’s handling of tariffs was an appropriate use of power, or whether it represented an overstep on his part. And just 31% expressed a lot of confidence in the president to make the cost of living more affordable, with 29% saying they had some confidence in him to do so and 40% that they had none at all.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/politics/trump-state-of-the-union-cnn-poll-cost-of-living

[doc03]

1. No president Republican or Democrat is going to lower prices without causing

a recession. They can somewhat lower the inflation rate but at 2.4% it is not high. If Democrats
keep running on that issue we are setting ourselves up for failuree same as Trump. Trump dug himself this hole
saying he would get prices down on Day One, the inflation rate may go down but prices don't go down short of
a severe recession or depression.

[SunSeeker]

2. Biden got us from 9.4% to 2% inflation without going into recession.

There are two things he could do to bring down inflation right now: end his inane tariffs and instruct the Republicans in Congress to fully fund the ACA.

[doc03]

3. But prices didn't go down they just increased at a slower rate. There are some things that have gone

down since Trump, eggs and gas. But overall prices are up. At 78 the only time I remember where prices may have
gone down was in the 80s Reagan and in the 2008 Bush recessions

[SunSeeker]

4. If wages had kept pace with inflation, affordability would not be an issue.

Under Biden, wages actually outpaced inflation for a short while toward the end, but wages are stagnant now, making people feel the price increases/inflation more.

[doc03]

5. I see you point about wages. If wages go up more than inflation things are

more affordable.