Most Americans say their wealth has not improved during Trump's presidency, new survey shows

The “Trump Bump” hasn’t benefitted most Americans, with fewer than one in six saying their personal finances have improved since Donald Trump became president, according to a survey commissioned by Bankrate.com.

Almost twice as many respondents said they're worse off since  Mr Trump moved into the White House in January 2017, while about half of the US adults polled, 45 per cent, said their financial situation has stayed about the same.

Groups likely to report doing better under Mr Trump included men, those identifying as white, and those earning $80,000 or more annually.

Covid-19 is only partly to blame. Three out of five of those surveyed said they failed to see any improvement in their personal wealth during  Mr Trump’s presidency, even before the coronavirus weakened the economy and ate into stock market gains of the past three years.

The benchmark S&P 500 index surged 58 per cent from  Mr Trump’s election in 2016 to a record in February, when the start of the pandemic-induced recession began. The benchmark has since fallen 10 per cent, while the jobless rate jumped as high as 14.7 per cent in April from a 50-year low.

“Despite low unemployment before the pandemic, income gains were slow in arriving during what we now understand was a 128-month long expansion,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com. “It has become more difficult to climb the wealth ladder in our country.”

About 42 per cent of those surveyed rated  Mr Trump’s overall handling of the economy negatively while 35 per cent say he’s done a good or very good job.

Potential voters were almost evenly divided on which 2020 presidential candidate would be the better bet for their financial future. Mr Trump and Democrat Joe Biden each got a bit more than a third of the support from those surveyed. The rest said neither candidate would be better, or they didn’t know.

Just 35 per cent of those who say their finances have been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak think their financial situations will improve by November’s election.

The survey of 1,343 adults was conducted from June 3 to 4 by YouGov.