Trump prepares his biggest bet on tariffs amid voter skepticism
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's immigration policies were deeply unpopular in his first term.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's immigration policies were deeply unpopular in his first term. Now, immigration is the area in which voters most approve of his second-term performance.
Trump's advisers are betting that his gamble on tariffs will pay off in a similar way in time, rewriting the political rules, as well as global rules, to the United States' lasting advantage, they say — as Trump faces broad skepticism over the issue in current polling.
Tariffs on major U.S. trading partners, including close allies, have been a defining feature of Trump's second term, and more are coming: He has declared April 2 America’s “Liberation Day” to establish reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners that have their own levies on U.S. imports, overturning decades of policy — and threatening chaos for businesses around the world.
“We’ve been ripped off by every country in the world, friend and foe,” Trump said in the Oval Office, predicting that the tariffs would bring in “tens of billions” of dollars. “We’ve been ripped off on trade. We’ve been ripped off on military. We protect people, and they don’t do anything for us.”
It's reminiscent of Trump's hard-line slugfests over immigration in his first term, from his proposed border wall to travel bans that were unpopular with voters and a bipartisan elite. But after President Joe Biden's border policies drew backlash, Trump won enough of that fight to turn immigration into a positive issue in the 2024 election. After his return to the White House in January, the field has shifted to make trade the next frontier, with Trump imposing tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from Mexico, Canada and China and preparing to move forward with additional tariffs on what could be trillions of dollars’ worth of goods. It’s a high-stakes move, pitting him against not just foreign allies but also a domestic coalition of business interests, free-trade advocates and others who have thrived in the status quo.
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