Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA on October 20, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
A majority of voters are less likely to support a candidate who supports universal tariffs, undermining a cornerstone of former President Donald Trump's campaign economic proposal, according to an NBC News poll released Sunday.
The poll found that 44% of respondents said they would be less inclined to vote for a candidate who generally supported a tariff of up to 20% on imports. Meanwhile, 35% said they would be more likely to support someone with this tariff proposal, while 19% said it would make no difference.
The poll polled 1,000 registered voters Oct. 4-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Although universal tariffs are unpopular with voters, Trump has embraced the hardliner proposal.
“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come to the United States and build a factory in the United States so they don't have to pay the tariff,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait last Tuesday at the Economic Club of Chicago.
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump is interviewed by Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, USA on October 15, 2024.
Joel Angel Juarez | Reuters
“You make the tariffs so high, so terrible, so disgusting that they come immediately,” the Republican presidential candidate added.
Trump has proposed imposing a 20% tariff on all goods from all countries, with a particularly high 60% tariff on Chinese imports.
The former president frames this tariff approach as a long-term strategy for onshore industries such as manufacturing to create more domestic jobs and generate revenue from other countries to finance his other proposals.
But some economists criticize blanket tariffs, pointing out that U.S. importers are the ones bearing the burden of import tariffs – costs that are likely to be passed on to consumers. As a result, economists claim that such harsh tariff policies could stoke inflation again just as it has begun to cool.
The Trump tariffs also drew criticism within the Republican Party.
“I’m not a fan of tariffs,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in late September. “They are raising prices for American consumers.”
Read more about CNBC's politics coverage
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, October 17, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
For its part, the Biden-Harris administration has taken a hawkish approach to trade policy, particularly toward China, even maintaining some of Trump's first tariffs. In May, President Joe Biden further increased tariffs on $18 billion in Chinese imports.
But the administration maintains that its targeted tariff approach is different from Trump's sweeping proposals.
“We have imposed a series of narrow, carefully targeted tariffs in strategic sectors that we have consciously chosen to promote in the United States,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an MSNBC interview on Friday.
“Broad-based tariffs,” a group of economists recently said, overwhelmingly believed they would hurt economic growth.”
Comments are closed.