Voter Opposition to Trump’s Tariffs Is Growing

President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada have rattled markets and sparked a trade war with America’s closest neighbors that threatens to raise prices on fuel and agricultural goods for an American public still reeling from inflation.

And as voters hear more about these tariffs, which Trump initially planned to impose last month before a last-minute delay, they’ve become more likely to oppose them, Morning Consult trend data suggests.

According to our data, more voters than not oppose Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico (48% to 38%), a sizable shift since we first asked voters the question back in January, when voters were evenly divided on the question. This change was driven largely by Democratic voters, 70% of whom now oppose the tariffs, along with mild softening among Republicans, 65% of whom now support Trump’s effort.

Tuesday also saw Trump double levies on goods imported from China from to 20%, and while slightly more voters than not support these new tariffs, they too are significantly less popular than the 10% variety he put into effect last month.

The bulk of the electorate (46%) supports Trump’s doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20%, though that’s down from the 51% who supported 10% levies on those products in a late January survey. 

As our research has shown, Americans are more supportive of protective trade measures against China than other countries because they think existing China tariffs, while bad for their own well-being, are good for the U.S. economy. But as our latest findings suggest, voter support for tariffs on China is not without limits.

Voters remain more likely than not to approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and trade, but those numbers have trended in the wrong direction since he took office in January, declining by 10 and 8 percentage points on net, respectively.

As we’ve shown you for weeks in our tracking of public opinion of Trump's Washington, Trump’s heavy focus on imposing tariffs isn’t shared by the voting public.

Less than a quarter of voters (23%) said tariffs should be a “top priority,” while far more (45%) said they see it as one for the president. At the same time, voters are far less likely to think Trump is focused on their chief issue — lowering costs — than they’d like him to be.

The bottom line

This data continues to underline the major political risk Trump is taking. 

Already, many voters say Trump — not former President Joe Biden — is chiefly responsible for current economic conditions, despite what the White House is saying about who’s to blame for inflation. 

And, farm-state Republicans who have been friendly to Trump have begun to express concern about the economic sparring between the North American nations. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said he feels “uneasy,” while Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he’s “concerned,” per Politico.

In Washington, there’s already initial concern that the Republican trifecta is little prepared to provide subsidies to protect Americans from economic retaliation given Trump’s posturing on shrinking the federal government. 

But the problem now facing the GOP is bigger: Trump promised the public he would curb inflation. If prices remain high or get worse due to tariffs, Trump is setting up his party to face the same bad economic dynamics that kneecapped Democrats in 2024.