Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign town hall meeting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 20, 2024.
brian snyder reuter
According to the survey, a majority of voters are unlikely to support a candidate who promotes universal tariffs. NBC News Poll results released Sunday undermine former President Donald Trump’s campaign’s cornerstone economic proposal.
In the poll, 44% of respondents said they would not vote for a candidate who would impose tariffs as high as 20% on all imported goods. Meanwhile, 35% said they were likely to support the tariff proposal, and 19% said it would have no impact.
The poll was conducted among 1,000 registered voters from October 4 to October 8, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Despite universal tariffs being unpopular with voters, President Trump aggressively pursued a hard-line plan.
“The higher the tariffs are, the more likely companies are to come to the United States and build factories in the United States so they don’t have to pay the tariffs,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg. Last Tuesday, John Micklethwaite, director of the Economic Club of Chicago, said:
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwaite at the Economic Club of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on October 15, 2024.
Joel Angel Juarez | Reuters
“The tariffs are so high, so horrible, so unpleasant that they will come quickly,” the Republican presidential candidate added.
President Trump has suggested imposing 20% tariffs on all goods from all countries, with a particularly high 60% tariff on imports from China.
The former president framed this tariff approach as a long-term strategy for land-based industries such as manufacturing, creating more domestic jobs and generating revenue from other countries to help pay for other proposals.
But some economists have criticized the flat tariff, saying that the burden of import taxes is on U.S. importers, and the costs are likely to be passed on to consumers. As a result, economists argue that such aggressive tariff policies could reheat inflation that has just begun to cool.
President Trump’s tariffs also face pushback from within the Republican Party.
“I don’t like tariffs,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in late September. “They raise prices for American consumers.”
Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on October 17, 2024 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
The Biden-Harris administration has taken a uniquely hawkish approach to trade policy, particularly with China, even maintaining some of President Trump’s first-term tariffs. In May, President Joe Biden further increased tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports.
But the administration insists its targeted tariff approach is different from President Trump’s comprehensive proposal.
“We have introduced a series of carefully targeted tariffs in strategic areas, and we have made a conscious decision to pursue them within the United States,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview on MSNBC on Friday. ” he said.
“With regard to broad-based tariffs, a group of economists recently took into account that they overwhelmingly believe this would have a negative impact on economic growth.”
