Always On: Navigating Tariffs This Week and Beyond

Welcome to Always On. Each week, we’ll dig into a brand or audience trend you need to know about, tapping into Morning Consult Intelligence, our always-on insights platform powered by 15,000 daily surveys across 40+ countries. That means thousands of brands, audience deep dives, and enough fresh data to make your spreadsheets jealous. Sign-up here to get this email sent to you directly every week.

This Friday is President Donald Trump’s “hard deadline” for other countries to begin paying so-called reciprocal tariffs. While the details have changed quickly repeatedly, the president has made tariffs a centerpiece of his administration, creating risks for U.S. consumers and companies alike.

This week’s Always On will explore how our suite of research, tools and data can help your brand respond to the moment, including:

• Tracking consumers’ perceptions and support of tariffs
• How consumers want brands to communicate price changes
• Understanding the United States’ reputation abroad
• Tracking consumers abroad who boycott U.S. brands
• and more

Tracking Consumers' Views on Tariffs

Both newly proposed and already imposed tariffs are largely unpopular with voters, who are concerned about a negative impact on the economy.

U.S. consumers' views of tariffs' effects on the economy

The majority (51%) of adults believe that tariffs are bad for the economy, a figure that has not changed much since May 2025. And among nearly 30 newly announced tariffs set to take effect on Aug. 1 tested, just two drew more support than opposition among voters: a 32% tax on Indonesian goods and a 30% tax on goods from Iraq. Even in those cases, nearly as many Americans opposed those tariffs.

Want to get our tariff tracking data? Morning Consult Intelligence clients can now export this monthly trended data set directly from the platform. To get started, choose Industry Trend Tracker from the Create New Export menu on the Data Exports page.

Communicating with Customers

Many brands can’t afford not to pass along at least a portion of the cost of new tariffs (and most U.S. consumers are expecting they will).

Some brands would prefer not to call attention to the changes, while others are choosing to be more upfront. In a custom survey, we set out to understand what customers are seeing from brands now, and how they’re reacting to messages about tariffs.

Consumers have positive attitudes about companies directly communicating price changes due to tariff policies

When asked which words describe companies that do communicate their tariff-related price changes, consumers selected smart over foolish, practical over impractical and trustworthy over deceitful. On the other hand, when asked what words describe companies that do not communicate tariff-related price changes to their customers, respondents were more likely to see those brands as unpatriotic, cowardly and unethical.

Message testing shows that consumers appreciate upfront communications from brands about the potential impact of tariffs more than a line item on their receipt. It’s imperative that brands avoid late-funnel fee surprises for their consumers. Read more here

The United States’ Erratic Reputation

America's global reputation has continued to swing erratically around tracking lows since April 2025, marking the onset of the Trump administration's formal reciprocal tariff announcements. It suffers the most in Europe, where the Trump administration has repeatedly targeted it with a variety of heavy-hitting tariff packages. Just look at the United States’ favorability in the United Kingdom below, as an example.

Anti-Americanism poses a risk for U.S. brands owing to a combination of rising consumer goods prices (should the tariffs enter into force) and sharply negative sentiment toward the United States that could compound the impact of rising prices on purchase consideration. Should new U.S. tariffs roll out, there is unprecedented risk of global consumers souring further on American brands.

Explore the United States’ reputation in more than 40 countries here with our Global U.S. Reputation Tracker, updated quarterly. Morning Consult Intelligence clients can see this data daily. Want to learn more? Reach out here

Are Your Customers Abroad Boycotting U.S. Brands?

Since April, we’ve been asking tens of thousand consumers around the world every week if they’re boycotting U.S. goods and services because of tariffs. A trend we identified earlier this year: Income, not ideology or age, most consistently predicts boycott propensity. Across almost all countries we examine, higher-income consumers are more likely to go out of their way to cut purchasing of U.S. brands in response to the tariffs.

In Canada, for example, nearly 75% of high-income consumers said in July they were boycotting U.S. products a lot or a little. That’s practically unchanged from when we started tracking this behavior earlier this year.

You can use MorningConsult.AI to get an even more specific look at whether or not your customers are boycotting U.S. products. For example, try asking: Can I see how many @Subway customers in Canada are boycotting U.S. goods?

Extra Credit

If you want access to these tools to track and understand the impact of tariffs on your brand, get in touch here. We’ll end this week’s newsletter with a few more recent pieces of research into tariffs and how consumers’ perceptions are shifting.

• How the Demise of De Minimis Has Impacted Temu and Shein: Consumers’ perception of Temu’s value dropped after the brand announced it would have to increase prices, but Shein did not suffer the same consequences.
• Geopolitical Risk in 2025: Mid-Year Update Report: Alongside persistent economic uncertainty linked to the Trump administration’s on-again off-again tariff war and strained U.S.-China relations, companies must also contend with no less than three major military conflicts: the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, and most recently, the Iran conflict.
• Inflation Looks Poised for a Modest Reheating Amid Further Tariff Delays: Ahead of the new August 1 deadline for further tariffs to go into effect, consumers remain on high alert for price increases.