Worries about everyday expenses helped return President-elect Donald Trump to the White House. But with his second term quickly approaching, many U.S. adults are skeptical about his ability to bring down costs. Only about 2 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident that Trump will be able to make progress on lowering the cost of groceries, housing or health care this year, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, while about 2 in 10 are “moderately” confident. Faith in Trump’s ability to create jobs is a little higher — about 3 in 10 are extremely or very confident the Republican will make progress on this in 2025 — but the poll indicates that despite his sweeping promises about lowering prices, a substantial chunk of his own supporters don’t have high confidence in his ability to quickly alleviate the economic pressures that continue to frustrate many households. Those tempered expectations haven’t dampened Republicans’ hopes for Trump’s second presidential term, though. And Democrats’ pessimism about his return to office is more muted than it was when he exited the White House in 2020. About 8 in 10 Republicans say Trump will be a “great” or “good” president in his second term, according to the poll. And while Democrats’ assessments are much more negative — about 8 in 10 say he will be a “poor” or “terrible” president — they are less likely to say he’ll be a “terrible” president in his second term than they were at the end of his first. Only about 3 in 10 are highly confident in Trump’s handling of the economy Much of the 2024 presidential campaign revolved around prices — whether President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was to blame for inflation and whether Trump could fix it. AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of voters and nonvoters that aims to tell the story behind election results, showed that about 4 in 10 voters in the November election identified the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the country and that about 6 in 10 of those voters cast their ballot for Trump. As Trump takes office, though, the poll shows that many Americans don’t anticipate that he will be able to immediately bring costs down. That includes some of his own supporters. Less than half of Republicans are at least “very” confident that Trump will make progress on lowering food costs, housing costs or health care costs, although about 6 in 10 are at least “very” confident in his ability to create jobs. Confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the broader economic situation is also fairly low. Only about one-third of Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident in his ability to handle the economy and jobs. Nearly 2 in 10 are “moderately” confident, and about half are “slightly confident” or “not at all confident.” Here, Republicans have more faith in Trump’s abilities — about 7 in 10 are at least “very” confident in his ability to handle the economy in general. But there are other policy areas where expectations for Trump aren’t high across the board. Similar to the economy and jobs, about one-third of Americans are at least “very” confident in Trump’s ability to handle immigration and national security, while about 2 in 10 are “moderately” confident and about half are “slightly” or “not at all” confident. […]