Trump’s Tariffs Flop with Working-Class Voters

Ron Brownstein: “It’s become an article of faith for trade hardliners in both parties that a protectionist agenda is a guaranteed pathway to building support among working-class voters. But now that President Donald Trump is testing that theory in practice, it is largely flopping on the campaign trail.”

“Trump has pursued the most confrontational trade agenda of any president since at least William McKinley at the end of the 19th century, and by the estimation of some historians, even Thomas Jefferson around its beginning.”

“But even in heavily blue-collar states and House districts that were long believed to be the most receptive to a protectionist agenda, Democrats almost uniformly have been comfortable this year running against the Trump tariffs, while Republicans have struggled to defend them. Even Democrats who are deeply skeptical of free trade agreements — like Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and Brian Poindexter, the ironworker running against Rep. Max Miller for an Ohio House seat — have been unreserved in condemning the Trump tariffs. Polls by CNN and other media organizations consistently show that far more Americans believe the tariffs have hurt rather than helped their financial bottom line — and that consensus extends even to working-class white voters without a four-year college degree.”