A few days ago, Donald Trump announced that he would be imposing a 25% tariff on imported steel and a 10% tariff on imported aluminum. This kicked off fears among those in both political parties that the action would kick off a trade war, with other countries responding by putting stiff tariffs on American products -- a move that could hurt American businesses and cost American jobs.
Trump responded to that backlash against his tariffs by tweeting that a trade war would be good for the United States, and would be easy to win.
As these charts show, the American public doesn't agree with Trump. With the tariffs, he has created another issue where he is at odds with what the public wants. The public disapproves of how Trump is handling trade policy by a 20 point margin (34% to 54%), opposes the tariffs on steel and aluminum by a 19 point margin (31% to 50%), and disagrees with his remark that a trade war would be good and easy to win by a 36 point margin (28% to 64%). And that opposition holds for both genders, all age groups, and across racial lines.
These charts reflect results contained in a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between March 3rd and 5th of a random national sample of 1,122 voters, with a margin of error of 3.5 points.
