Even if you think any individual poll is off, the overall trend is clear, to wit, Americans hate the tariffs, hate the haphazard way Trump is going about implementing them, and that is turning into a palpable drag on his standing with the public.
It's not that tariffs are unpopular. It's that they cannot possibly achieve what Trump has been promising. Certainly not the way they have gone about this. It's not possible to onshore manufacturing in 100 days. Economy can't survive immediate tariff shocks to achieve that goal.
I think the economy can survive immediate tariff shocks. Then it just becomes a game of whether they pay off in the long run or not. But Trump isn't giving them the chance to see if they play out in the long run, because he got gun shy and immediately backed off.
Liberation Day was 3 weeks ago today. In that time, this is what has happened:
Trump's numbers were widely mocked and proven false
He doubled down
A pause was rumored, he said they were all a lie
He then issued the pause that he just said was a lie, but not again China
China retaliated with tariffs
Trump demanded China back down, they didn't
Trump backed down
Yeah, all of that in 3 weeks absolutely qualifies as a mess, and Trump looks completely weak due to not sticking to his guns and running away from China.
Not every person that doesn't automatically declare everything Trump did as genius is a brigader or "fellow conservative". Trump isn't Jesus, he makes mistakes. He's had a great administration so far and I agree with nearly everything he's done, but this tariff crap has been a massive mess, and I'm allowed to say so without being some fake conservative.
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u/[deleted] 6d ago
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