A three-time voter for President Donald Trump says soaring grocery bills and other everyday expenses have left her disappointed with his second term, as a new national poll points to widespread frustration over the cost of living, including among members of his own party.

Bethany Lnenicka, the 41-year-old operator of a small farm in Fairfax, Iowa, told The Associated Press that rising prices continue to squeeze household budgets. “Groceries are just like kind of out of control. It seems like everything is going up,” Lnenicka said. “It’s just one thing, and the next week it’s another thing. It’s just insane. And of course your income doesn’t go up.”

Lnenicka, a political independent who generally votes Republican, said she had expected Trump’s return to the White House to resemble his first term. Judging by her own household budget, she told the AP, she simply does not feel things have improved much.

Her remarks arrive alongside new survey data underscoring how broadly cost-of-living frustration has spread. An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that only 17 percent of American adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, while his overall approval rating on the economy stands at 26 percent, a new low in the survey.

Roughly 65 percent of Americans say Trump’s policies are more to blame for persistently high prices than factors beyond his control. About seven in ten believe his management of living costs has been worse than they expected.

Discontent has now reached into Trump’s own party. According to the poll, about six in ten Republicans disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, up from roughly half in April. Around half of Republicans also say his performance on living costs has fallen short of their expectations.

Concerns about affording essentials are rising as well. Approximately half of U.S. adults now say they are extremely or very worried about their ability to pay for gasoline, an increase from 39 percent in July. A comparable share voice serious concern about paying for food.

Pedro Sanchez, a 52-year-old who works in law enforcement in California, told the AP that his disposable income has shrunk considerably as expenses climb.

The cost-of-living debate carries added weight given the 2024 campaign, in which Trump made inflation a centerpiece of his pitch, criticizing former President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris while promising voters that prices would fall. Since March 2025, his standing on economic matters has dropped 14 percentage points, and the new findings place that slide against a backdrop in which affordability was central to his electoral appeal.

The findings land just weeks before the midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. With the campaign’s final stretch underway, the survey’s cost-of-living readings — particularly among Republicans — offer a reference point for the sentiment voters will carry to the polls. The AP-NORC poll surveyed 2,140 adults from September 24 to 28 and carries a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.