Many Americans are reportedly not in favor of President Trump’s tariffs against China.
According to a new Axios/Survey Monkey poll, while 42% think the trade dispute has been good for jobs, a narrow majority of 53% feel it has been bad. Those polled had a similar response to Trump’s trade policies overall, with 44% in approval and 53% disapproving.
Republicans expressed the most support for the tariffs, at 80% approval. 35% of independents and just 10% of Democrats think the tariffs are good for jobs.
The tariffs haven proven unpopular amongst several subgroups that Axios polled, including African-American women, millennials, white suburban women, and the “never Hillary” independent group. Only rural voters look upon the tariffs favorably.
Nevertheless, the overall percentage of Americans that feel the trade dispute between the U.S. and China has worsened is not much larger than those that said it has stayed the same, 43% to 41%. Just 12% of those polled said the dispute is getting better.
The same survey put Trump’s total approval rating at 46%, with 52% in disapproval. Of those that disapprove, just 1% think the U.S.-China dispute is improving. Meanwhile, 18% of Americans who expressed approval for Trump think the dispute is getting worse, which could have consequences for Trump’s approval rating down the line.
The poll was conducted prior to the announcement of the new NAFTA agreement, otherwise known as the USMCA. American opinion of the new agreement could therefore have an impact on both Trump’s approval rating and opinion of his trade policies in particular.
