Poll: Majority of Americans distrust billionaires

A majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of billionaires, according to a Bloomberg News national poll released Wednesday.

The poll found that fewer than a third of the people surveyed say they admire billionaires, 31 percent, while 53 percent distrust them. Sixteen percent responded that they were not sure.

Republicans were found to be more likely to admire billionaires than Democrats, with 53 percent of Republicans in the poll indicating that they trust the wealthy while only 17 percent of Democrats responded that they trust billionaires, according to Bloomberg.

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President Trump is the first billionaire to hold the presidency and has appointed two other billionaires and at least a dozen millionaires to his Cabinet, Bloomberg noted. The president’s Cabinet has a combined net worth of about $6 billion.

The survey released Wednesday also found increasingly favorable views about the Federal Reserve System as the economy strengthens. Fifty-two percent of people said that they view the central bank favorably, which is higher than the results from any other survey conducted since 2009.

More than half of the people polled did not know enough about Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to form an opinion of her, with 28 percent of people saying they view her favorably and 15 percent disliking her, according to the poll.

The poll sampled 1,001 adults who are 18 years or older between July 8 and 12 with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.