When a pollster has to redraw the chart because a president’s numbers don’t even fit anymore, that’s not normal. It’s a signal. Donald Trump hit that point this week on the cost of living, and the updated graph only makes it clearer.
G. Elliott Morris, a data journalist who tracks presidential approval across multiple issue categories, posted the chart on X Thursday and noted that Trump had effectively broken his visualization tool.
The inflation and cost of living line had descended so far below every other metric that the scale required adjustment to keep up with it. Every other issue showed declining numbers.
trump literally broke the scale of this graph on my data portalhttps://t.co/cLg7fEXIpF pic.twitter.com/gTmzhCZvTo
— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris) April 30, 2026
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The steepest drop began in mid-March, roughly two weeks after the Iran war started, and has not recovered since. By April 30, the cost of living approval number sat more than 40 points underwater, the lowest recorded figure on that metric since Trump returned to office.
The broader findings from the same survey added a number that the White House will find harder to dismiss than a graph redesign.
A majority of American adults now support impeaching the president, including roughly one in five people who cast a ballot for him in November 2024. The pizza promised during the campaign is now $4.30 a gallon at the pump.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey released earlier this week put Trump’s overall standing at 34% approval against 64% disapproval, a net figure that has deteriorated sharply since October. His cost of living numbers in that survey came in lower than Biden’s weakest readings during the peak inflation period of his presidency, which is a comparison the Trump campaign spent two years making in his favor.
Kathryn Bright, a 60-year-old retired Air Force captain who voted for Trump in 2024, told the Associated Press she feels “disgusted with myself” for doing so. “I feel betrayed, like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said.
“It’s like high school class president: ‘I’m gonna promise we are going to get pizza every single day.’ Then as soon as they get elected, they are like, ‘Oh, I lied.'” She voted for him on three specific promises: better care for veterans, an end to foreign wars and lower costs. The scorecard on all three is not favorable.
The war in Iran is running American taxpayers close to $900 million per day, with the national gas average reaching $4.30 on Thursday according to AAA.
Featured image via X screengrab
