Nearly half of Americans said their financial security is getting worse, compared to a fifth who said it is getting better, according to a poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian.

In the Harris poll, 45% of Americans said their financial security is getting worse, and 57% said the U.S. economy is undergoing a recession, even though that is not true, up 11% from a similar poll that was conducted in February. Many are increasingly blaming the White House, the Guardian reports.

The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by The Harris Poll from December 11 to 13, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,180 U.S. adults.

Although the U.S. is not experiencing a recession, which is typically defined as two quarters of negative growth, the pessimism underscores an economically tumultuous year, with new, punitive tariffs on America’s trading partners, mass government layoffs and a crackdown on immigration. The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence has dropped for five consecutive months.

The White House has insisted that it’s “bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin”, as Trump said in a mid-December speech. “Now, under our leadership, [prices] are all coming down – and they’re coming down fast,” the president said.

The new Harris poll underscores the sharp differences between political party, gender, race and income that shape how people see the current state of the economy. Republicans scored Joe Biden’s handling of the economy far more harshly than Democrats during his term.

The stark divisions between Democrats and Republicans continue to persist. Democrats are almost twice as likely as Republicans to say their financial security is getting worse – 52% versus 27%.

But more concerningly for Republicans, who will have to fight next year to keep their majority in Congress, Trump hasn’t been able to sway independents. A majority (54%) of independents said their financials are worsening, +9% compared with February’s polling. Most independents (58%) also believe the country is experiencing a recession.

More of the blame is being placed on the White House than ever before. When asked to choose between the government or corporations for the question “who is most responsible for any increasing prices,” 76% of Democrats said it was government management of the economy,  up 17% from February’s poll, and 72% of independents also pointed to the government, up 14% from February. Republicans were less likely to point to the government, with 55% saying it was government (-6% compared to February) and 45% blaming corporate practices.