With President Donald Trump implementing his tariff agenda throughout the last week, many have begun to wonder how he would have done in the election if he had campaigned on these ideas.
A poll from the Wall Street Journal found that Americans are split on how they view tariffs, with the deciding factor for many being their political affiliations.
According to the poll, 77% of Republicans have said they hold mostly positive views of how tariffs will impact the economy, with many feeling it will help create jobs. However, 93% of Democrats hold a negative view, feeling they will carry a mostly negative impact and drive prices higher.
Overall, a majority of registered voters (54%) thought of tariffs negatively and did not support President Trump’s tariff plans.
While throughout his campaign Trump vowed to right the economy through his use of tariffs, some experts are worried that the country is headed towards an economic crisis, with the stock market tumbling in the three days after Trump announced his plan.
Many have also started to wonder how he would have performed had his tariff plans been clear.
Home Depot co-founder and GOP megadonor Ken Langone blasted Trump’s tariffs this week, telling The Financial Times that his 46% tariffs on Vietnam were “bullshit” and the 34% tariffs on China were “too aggressive, too soon.”
“I don’t understand the goddamn formula,” the veteran Republican political campaign donor said. “I believe [Trump’s] been poorly advised by his advisers about this trade situation — and the formula they’re applying.”
But Langone isn’t the only GOP donor or supporter to question the tariffs after seeing how the economy has reacted. Even Elon Musk has said that the best-case scenario would be free trade between the U.S. and Europe.
“At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said in a recent interview.
Last Thursday and Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2,200 points while the S&P 500 fell by 10%. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 349 points, having dipped more than 4,000 points since Trump unveiled his plan.
Trump has said he didn’t “want anything to go down” but defended his decision to implement reciprocal tariffs.
“When you look at the trade deficit we have with certain countries, with China, it’s a trillion dollars,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
“And we have to solve our trade deficit with China.… Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal,” he continued.
The Journal’s poll was conducted from March 27 to April 1, days before Trump announced his wide ranging reciprocal tariffs. It included responses from 1,500 registered voters. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.