Terry Jones of Issues and Insights highlights interesting new polling information involving American attitudes about tariffs.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods suffered a Supreme Court legal rebuke in late February, but they’re not doing much better in the court of public opinion. As the latest I&I/TIPP shows, a plurality of voters don’t believe the economy will get a boost from tariffs, which win strong majority support only from Republicans.
It was once the case that most conservatives and many moderates rejected tariffs on imported goods as an unwanted distortion of free trade. Meanwhile, liberals embraced tariffs as a welcome tool of government “industrial policy.”
But President Trump has flipped the script. In the latest I&I/TIPP online national opinion poll, taken from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27 by 1,456 adults, voters were asked: “Do you think tariffs are a good way to strengthen the U.S. economy?”
By a solid plurality, Americans overall answered “no” (45%) rather than “yes” (34%). “Not sure” received 22% support. The poll has a +/-3.0 percentage point margin of error.
With Trump in office, self-described liberals are now anti-tariff, with 75% saying no, and 17% yes. Conservatives also reversed: Just 18% said no, while 62% answered yes. Those in the moderate camp were also anti-tariff: 54% no, 20% yes.
Politically, Republicans (61% yes, 20% no) were pretty isolated, with majorities of both Democrats (15% yes, 65% no) and independents (23% yes, 55% no) rejecting the economic benefit of tariffs.
That split showed up again earlier this year, as the New York Times reported: “While most Democrats have criticized Mr. Trump’s on-again, off-again approach as ‘chaotic’ and ‘reckless,’ they have displayed little consensus about embracing tariffs themselves as a policy tool.”
In short, the left may hate “Trump’s tariffs,” but they don’t object to their use in general.
