{"id":14453,"date":"2025-04-07T17:40:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T17:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14453"},"modified":"2025-04-07T17:41:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T17:41:28","slug":"trumps-tariffs-risk-destroying-his-winning-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14453","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s tariffs risk destroying his winning coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Already distrusted on the economy, Trump\u2019s tariffs will be a liability with the voters who put him in office.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Christian Paz<\/a><\/em>, Vox<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As markets tank and the prospect of higher prices becomes more real, the future of President Donald Trump\u2019s winning coalition might be on a precipice, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s tariff policy, unpopular with the American public in general<\/a>, is even more unpopular among the voters who gave him the boost he needed to win the 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They include young voters, voters of color, and independents \u2014 people who prioritized economic concerns and the price of goods enough to take a wager on a second Trump term. These voters weren\u2019t necessarily hardcore MAGA fans \u2014 some, such as young voters, aren\u2019t necessarily conservative ideologically, for example \u2014 but they were dissatisfied with the post-pandemic status quo and the Democratic Party\u2019s handling of inflation. Trump and Republican candidates promised them lower prices, and these voters expected them to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the president has focused on immigration, tearing apart the government bureaucracy, and threatening, then delaying, tariffs, these voters, like the American public in general, have said consistently that they want him to focus on lowering costs and beating inflation for good instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks, polling has shown that voters think Trump isn\u2019t focusing enough on their top issue: the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the data also show a clear warning sign for Trump and Republicans ahead of next year\u2019s midterms: the non-MAGA voters that diversified and expanded their winning 2024 coalition are at risk of defecting, and throwing the future of this popular majority into uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump is losing support over the economy with voters outside his base<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though he\u2019s more popular than he was at this point in his presidency in 2017, Trump has been steadily losing support from the American public as perceptions of his economic stewardship have worsened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration policy remains his strength \u2014 just over half of the country supports<\/a> his harsh, restrictionist approach. But opinions of how he\u2019s handling jobs, the economy, and inflation have been steadily dropping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Trump\u2019s voters, a stark divide is emerging between his core base of (primarily white, non-college educated) MAGA supporters, and the less ideological, more diverse (albeit smaller) group of Republican voters who do not consider themselves MAGA-aligned (YouGov pollsters ask respondents if they identify as MAGA followers<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Times data journalist John Burn-Murdoch captured this dynamic last week<\/a>, noting an \u201ceconomic disconnect between Trump\u2019s Maga on the one hand and the wider conservative Republican party on the other\u201d in polling data shared with him by YouGov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This shows that the narrow subset of voters who identify as Maga Republicans continue to approve of the president at astronomically high levels, even after the tangible turmoil of the past 10 weeks. But the larger group of other voters who backed Trump last November is rapidly souring on his economic policies and overall record.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That disconnect is huge when it comes to \u201cjobs and the economy\u201d and \u201cinflation\/prices,\u201d where the MAGA base\u2019s approval of Trump\u2019s job performance hasn\u2019t really budged at all between February and April, while in the category of \u201cother Trump 2024 voters,\u201d Trump\u2019s approval has plunged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One key driver for all of this? Trump\u2019s tariff policy specifically. Among all American adults, these tariffs are really unpopular, and respondents specifically think they\u2019ll worsen inflation. YouGov\u2019s most recent polling from April 2<\/a> \u2014 the so-called Liberation Day that Trump hyped up to announce his universal tariffs, show this \u2014 though it\u2019s still early and we\u2019ll get more data points in the days to come. More than half, or 51 percent of American adults said they \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cstrongly\u201d disapprove of the tariff policy. Just 34 percent said they approved \u2014 a nearly 20-point net negative rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And more than two-thirds<\/a> of these respondents said they expect the price of everyday goods will increase as a result, including 47 percent of Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking down these figures by the cohorts of voters that Trump made gains with last year paints a similarly startling picture for the GOP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n