64% of Americans say Trump blew it on tariffs

New polls show broad tariff disapproval

Most Americans don’t like how President Donald Trump has handled tariffs, and they haven’t for a while.

A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found about 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s approach to tariffs on imported goods, while 34% approve.

The survey covered 2,589 adults from Feb. 12-17 with a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. That disapproval cuts across income levels, genders, age groups, and racial backgrounds.

Other polls back up the numbers

The ABC poll isn’t an outlier. A Pew Research Center survey of 8,512 adults from Jan. 20-26 found about 60% disapprove of tariff increases, with 39% strongly against them.

A Fox News poll from the same week showed roughly 63% of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s tariff approach. These numbers have barely budged since April 2025, when Trump first rolled out his broad tariff policy.

The opposition has held steady for nearly a year.

Party loyalty shapes the divide

The numbers shift sharply along party lines. About 75% of Republicans approve of Trump’s tariff handling in the ABC/Ipsos poll, while 95% of Democrats and 72% of independents disapprove.

The Pew survey found similar results, with roughly 71% of Republicans backing tariff increases and 93% of Democrats opposing them.

But here’s a wrinkle: among Republicans who don’t identify with the MAGA movement, majorities disapprove of how Trump has handled tariffs and inflation.

Americans feel worse about the economy

Tariffs are just one piece of a bigger picture. About 48% of Americans say the economy has gotten worse since Trump took office in January 2025, compared to 29% who say it improved.

Roughly 65% disapprove of his handling of inflation, and 57% disapprove of his economic leadership overall.

When asked whom they trust more to cut living costs, Americans split almost evenly: about 32% said Trump and 31% said Democrats in Congress.

Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s main tariffs

Three days after the ABC poll wrapped up, the Supreme Court handed down a major ruling.

On Feb. 20, the court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give the president power to impose tariffs.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Gorsuch, Barrett, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson.

The decision wiped out tariffs Trump had placed on nearly all foreign trading partners starting in early 2025, including the “Liberation Day” tariffs from April 2025.

Trump fired back within hours

Trump didn’t wait long. Hours after the ruling, he signed an order putting a 10% global tariff in place under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. The next day, he raised that rate to 15%, the maximum the law allows.

No president had ever used Section 122 for tariffs before.

These replacement tariffs expire after 150 days, around July 24, unless Congress votes to extend them. Tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, and heavy trucks under a separate law remain untouched by the ruling.

Importers may get billions back

The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates importers could be owed up to $175 billion in refunds for tariffs they paid under the now-illegal IEEPA program.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection had collected about $133.5 billion under that law as of mid-December. But the Supreme Court didn’t say how refunds should work, leaving that question to lower courts.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned in his dissent that the refund process would likely be messy. Trump said he does not plan to pay refunds willingly and expects years of court battles.

Shoppers won’t get money back

If refunds do happen, they go to the companies that paid the tariffs, not the people who bought the products. About 300,000 U.S. importers may qualify.

Many of those businesses already passed a share of their tariff costs to customers through higher prices. So even if importers get money back, consumers are unlikely to see any of it returned.

The higher prices shoppers paid on everyday goods are, for now, money gone.

Remaining tariffs still raise prices

Even with the IEEPA tariffs gone, Americans aren’t off the hook.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates the remaining tariffs will push consumer prices up by about 0.6% in the short term, which works out to roughly $800 in lost income for the average household.

The Tax Foundation puts the cost of remaining Section 232 tariffs alone at about $400 per household in 2026.

Price hikes hit hardest on metal products, electronics, and vehicles, and lower-income families feel the squeeze most.

Replacement tariffs face legal doubts

Trump’s Section 122 tariffs might not survive in court either.

Several trade experts say the law was designed for a specific kind of international payments emergency, and some economists say that emergency doesn’t exist right now.

The administration has also started new trade investigations under Section 301, but those could take months to finish.

Trade uncertainty will likely stay high as the White House tries several legal paths to put tariffs back in place.

Most Americans support the court’s ruling

A YouGov poll released Feb. 21 found about 60% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court’s decision. Only 23% disapprove, and 17% weren’t sure.

Support was strongest among Democrats at 88% and independents at 63%. Among Republicans, 43% disapprove of the ruling while 30% approve.

When asked how tariffs affected the economy, 41% said prices went up a lot and another 25% said prices rose a little.

Several deadlines loom ahead

The 15% replacement tariff expires around July 24 unless Congress extends it.

Lower courts will decide how the refund process works for importers who paid the struck-down tariffs. The administration’s new trade investigations could lead to tariffs on specific countries, but those take months.

Existing trade deals with countries like the United Kingdom, China, and Japan may need reworking.

The overall U.S. tariff rate dropped from about 16% to around 9% after the ruling, though it remains the highest since 1946.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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