HAMDEN – One week after President Trump announced tariffs on dozens of countries on what he dubbed “Liberation Day,” a vast majority of voters think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. A smaller majority think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy in the long-term.
In the short-term, 72% of voters think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy, while 22% think the tariffs will help the U.S. economy. In the long-term, 53% of voters think the tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy, while 41% think the tariffs will help the U.S. economy.
“A large majority of voters acknowledge the tariffs are delivering a bruising body blow to the economy in the near term,” said Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy. “Will time reduce the pain? Some think it will, but a majority don’t envision that happening.”
Economic issues
Given a list of four economic issues and asked which one worries voters the most right now, the price of food and consumer goods (47%) tops the list, followed by the cost of housing or rent (20%), the stock market (17%), and their job situation (6%).
Trump approval
Forty-one percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 53% disapprove. On Trump’s handling of the economy, 40% approve, while 55% disapprove. On Trump’s handling of trade, 39% of voters approve, while 55% disapprove.
Other key findings
Voters – 50%-45% – slightly disapprove of the way Trump is handling immigration issues and voters – 53%-42% – disapprove of the way he is handling deportations.
Voters are evenly split on which party they think cares more about the needs and problems of people like them, with 33% saying the Republican Party, 33% saying the Democratic Party, and 31% saying neither party.
By a wide margin – 61%-31% think that someone in the Trump administration should lose their job over the Signal group chat incident regarding national security.
