Terry JonesHow do Americans feel about President Donald Trump’s tariffs? As the U.S. Supreme Court mulls whether the president even has the constitutional power to impose tariffs, the general public’s feelings about the import tax is at best ambivalent, at worst hostile, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
Along with interest rate policy and soaring federal spending, Trump’s tariffs loom as among the most significant governmental economic policies proposed in the last two decades.
So what do average Americans think about them?
In the latest national online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,362 adult Americans, taken Aug. 27-29, voters were asked the following question (one of three on tariffs): “The U.S. has put extra taxes (tariffs) on goods from other countries. Do you think this mostly helps American workers, mostly hurts American consumers, or doesn’t make much difference?”
Overall, 23% said tariffs mostly help U.S. workers, but more than twice as many – 55% – said they mostly hurt consumers. Another 11% said it doesn’t make a lot of difference, while 11% were not sure.
Most of the 36 major demographic categories I&I/TIPP regularly tracks agreed that that the major impact would be on consumers, not on workers. There was one big exception: Political affiliation.
Democrats (11% “mostly helps workers,” 76% “mostly hurts consumers”) and independents (14% “mostly helps workers,” 58% “mostly hurts consumers”) overwhelmingly agreed that consumers were hurt by tariffs.
But among Republicans, 41% answered that the tariffs would help workers, compared to just 35% who said they would help consumers.
I&I/TIPP then asked voters a question about the practical results of tariffs: “If tariffs mean higher prices in stores, would you support them to protect U.S. jobs, or oppose them to keep costs lower?”
This time, 37% of all respondents answered that they would support tariffs to protect workers, versus a plurality of 44% who said they would oppose them to keep prices lower. In short, Americans appear to be more concerned about inflation than about job losses.
And, once again, political differences were sharp: Among Democrats, only 23% said they would back tariffs to protect U.S. jobs, while 61% said they would oppose them in order to keep prices down. For independents, 28% support tariffs to protect jobs, but 45% oppose tariffs to keep prices low.
Republicans reversed those results: 60% back tariffs as a way to bolster U.S. jobs, while only 28% oppose tariffs to bring prices down.
Finally, I&I/TIPP asked: “What should the U.S. focus on more right now?”
Among all respondents, 34% selected “Making more things here at home, even if it costs more,” while a 52% majority picked “Keeping prices as low as possible, even if it means more imports.” Another 13% weren’t sure.
Political leanings again matter. Among Democrats, 67% opted for keeping prices low even if it means making things overseas, versus 22% picking making things here, even if it’s more expensive. For independents, 31% said make things here, compared to 50% wanting prices to be as low as possible.
Republicans? While 41% wanted prices to be as low as possible, a plurality of 49% wanted more things to be made here, even at higher costs.
These results represent a switch of the traditional political party stances on trade and inflation. Republicans in the past were staunch free traders, regardless of its impact on jobs. Democrats often backed trade protection and federal support for domestic jobs. Independents stood somewhere in between.
But with Trump’s call for tariffs as a means of redressing trade imbalances and boosting revenue, all this has changed. Elected Republicans today broadly support Trump in his tariff-trade crusade (with a few notable exceptions, such as Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul).
Republican Trump even gets big kudos from labor unions for supporting tariffs over the “free-trade disaster” that many blame for America’s slumping Rust Belt economy.
It was once conventional wisdom among modern economists that barriers to trade such as tariffs and quotas were almost universally awful and led to negative economic consequences. Not so anymore.
Indeed, a recent study by the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank found that the Trump tariffs were likely to lead to one-time inflation increases of anywhere from 0.81% to 1.63%, but wouldn’t lead to an upward inflation spiral.
As for the overall economy, tariffs may slow economic growth, but that will likely be offset by Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” tax cuts, which will boost the economy by increasing both capital investment and productivity, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate.
As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Laura Ingraham in February, “relative to everything else President Trump is doing, lowering the energy costs, deregulating, and commonsense policies, inflation is going to go down overall.”
Even so, as the I&I/TIPP Poll shows, Americans feel the pangs from Biden’s post-COVID inflation surge, which slashed Americans’ purchasing power by 25% since 2020. As the I&I/TIPP Poll shows, Americans are very inflation-sensitive right now, and that negatively affects how they view tariffs.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
Most people simply don’t realize how destructive the last term was to the economy.
Compound this with the media completely covering up the 25% inflation from the disasterous policies we just survived. It gets worse. As that monsterous inflation works it way through the economy, the media reports that every price increase is due to tariffs.
To be fair, people change behavior in response to economic conditions. The revenues from the tariffs will not be as high as projected. What is true is that the money spent during the Biden era is gone. It ain’t coming back.
Yes, your observations are right. Also, the majority (greater percent) of price increases, so far, has been from “services” not goods; an important fact mostly ignored because, well….you know why. One of the first mercantile adjustments to tariffs is to take out cost, remove materials, cheapen the packaging, reduce inventory carrying costs in the many ways that is done, make the candy bars smaller, etc. All in attempts to reduce the sticker shock of higher retail prices. That has already begun and if you asked the public to give examples from their own purchase history, it would make an interesting read, I’m sure.
The fed reserve is a all a-twitter about their impending doom is what’s happening here-and it’s GLORIOUS!!
A number of years ago they were pushing the U.S. towards a Service Economy. We are now seeing the results. The U.S. needs to be a Product Oriented Economy or the world will steal it blind.
What they should ask in these polls is “Rather than running up huge trade deficits year after year, do you believe the United States should reciprocate when out trading partners place tariffs and other burdens on our “free trade”?
Yes, tariffs can raise the prices of goods, but they can also create jobs here and raise wages, thereby negating any negative influence they may create. Let us also remember the outrageous propaganda being waged on the American people. Inflation was out of control during the Biden Administration. Today, inflation is chiefly confined to energy, food, and housing, three domestically produced areas that have almost nothing to do with tariffs.
Of course people think tariffs will hurt. It’s being drilled into them by the MSM. I am a consumer on a fixed income. Prices have not really changed since tariffs took affect. But money to the US coffers has increased. How does that hurt?
I never believe polls I used to do polling and they can sway it anyway they want depending on who’s right in the article
Most people will say whatever the TV tells them to say. When even professional economists are wrong so often, what does the average voter know?