Abstract
Census Bureau Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey data covering the first four months of Trump 2.0 reveal a sharp decline in confidence in The Presidency as an institution; and a significant increase in the levels of U.S. household distress over job loss, escalating prices, caregiver constraints, transportation barriers, food insecurity, and threats of foreclosure and eviction. Policies, programs, and practices to address these issues are outlined.
Introduction
The year 2025 was enormously disruptive in American society. Among other challenges, a never-ending barrage of 225 White House Executive Orders dramatically transformed the U.S. population and the households in which they reside.
Data from the February and June 2025 waves of the Census Bureau’s Household Trends and Outlook Pulse Survey (HTOPS), which monitors on a monthly basis a panel of U.S. households randomly selected from more than 75,000 addresses across the nation, allow us to highlight both the nature and frequency of “emergent social and economic matters” in U.S. households during the first four months of Donald J. Trump’s second term as President of the United States (Trump 2.0).