- New poll finds voters are mostly of mixed sentiment about President Trump's tariff changes
- Relative support or opposition to the new policies break along partisan lines
- Voters mostly agree that retailers should be transparent about tariff-related price changes
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had some unique insight to share with a Utah audience last month regarding President Donald Trump’s mindset about international trade policy.
Pompeo joined Trump’s first-term inner circle, first as CIA director but just over a year later was chosen to lead out on the president’s global policies as secretary of state. During a talk delivered in early May at the Crossroads of the World Summit, hosted by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah in Midvale, Pompeo said the deeply interconnected global economy was critically important and a system that “creates enormous value for the United States of America.” And he noted that he believes Trump has no qualms about wielding tariff policy as a tool to address perceived issues with other countries.
“As for President Trump and his tariff policy … you should know he believes it with all his heart, rightly or wrongly," Pompeo said. “He calls himself ‘Tariff Man’. Does that leave any doubt in your mind? He believes that bilateral trade deficits in goods are bad and no one is going to convince him otherwise.”
Data gathered in a new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics statewide survey reveals how Utahns are feeling about Trump’s approach to international trade policy, with sentiment split sharply along partisan lines.
Trump has directed a series of incremental increases in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, as well as imports from other countries, since he took office. Trump has argued that tariff policy is effective in addressing trade imbalances as well as compelling other nations to take action on issues like illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Proclaiming it “Liberation Day, the president declared a sweeping array of new levies on April 2. At a White House press event that day, he characterized his tariff pronouncement as a turning point for U.S. economic policy.
“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history,” Trump said. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”
A week later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on most of the reciprocal tariffs that were included in his Liberation Day decree, with the exception of China, which was hit with another tariff increase at that time.
The on-again, off-again tariff policy gyrations have cast a cloud of uncertainty over the U.S. business sector and roiled investment markets.
In the latest action on tariff issues, the U.S. and China completed a second round of trade meetings earlier this week in London that appear to have quelled, at least for the moment, rising U.S.-Sino tensions that followed a temporary agreement reached last month in Geneva, Switzerland.
Here’s where new U.S. tariffs currently stand:
- China tariffs now at 30%, including a 10% base rate and 20% fentanyl-targeted levy.
- Tariffs of 25% are in place on imported automobiles and goods from Canada and Mexico not covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
- U.S. tariff rate on most steel and aluminum imports is 50%
- Imports from all other countries are subject to a 10% trade levy.
What Utahns have to say about Trump’s tariff plan
In an online poll conducted May 8-15 of 805 registered Utah voters, Harris X pollsters asked participants, “Do you support or oppose the Trump Administration’s tariff program?”
Overall, Utah voters’ sentiments were close to split with 50% of respondents weighing-in as somewhat or strongly in support of Trump’s tariff plans while 44% somewhat or strongly opposed the president’s trade policies. Of those in the support group, 69% were self-identified Republicans and 19% Democrats. In the opposition category, 25% were Republicans and 81% Democrats.
The Deseret News/Hinckley Institute polling also sought to learn more about how Utahns are feeling about the execution of Trump’s tariff plans.
When asked “Which comes closest to your views of the Trump administration’s tariff policies?” and given three response options, 19% of respondents aligned with “It’s the right idea but has been executed badly,” 53% chose “It’s the right idea but requires more time to work,” and 28% opted for “It’s the wrong idea regardless of execution and time required.”
The partisan divide for the first response was about even but in the “right idea, executed badly” group, 69% of poll participants were Republicans and 22% Democrats. Among the “wrong idea, regardless” respondents, 12% were Republicans and 64% Democrats.
The personal toll of tariffs
The survey also explored how Utahns measure the personal impacts of trade policy changes so far in Trump’s second term.
When surveyors asked “Have the administration’s tariff policies so far helped you, hurt you or has it had no impact?” 16% said tariffs have been a help, 36% said they have been hurt by Trump tariff policy and a plurality of poll participants, 48%, said they believe the tariff changes have had no impact on their lives.
How much should customers know?
Back in April, a firestorm erupted following a Punchbowl News report that Amazon was planning to add a tariff-related number to product prices on its website. Just hours after that April 29 report published, a reporter asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “Isn’t that a perfect, crystal clear demonstration that it’s the American consumer and not China who is going to have to pay for these policies?”
Before Bessent could respond, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt interjected that she had “just got off the phone with the president about Amazon’s announcement.”
“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”
Later the same day, an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC that the company was only ever considering listing tariff charges on some products for Amazon Haul, its budget-focused shopping section.
“The team that runs our ultra-low-cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products,” the spokesperson said. “This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
But some other U.S. retailers have begun adding tariff-related costs as a line item on customer receipts.
Testing Utah voters’ feelings about tariff line items, HarrisX asked poll participants whether they supported or opposed the practice.
An easy majority of respondents, 56%, said they somewhat or strongly support the practice while 30% somewhat or strongly oppose it and 14% said they weren’t sure.
When bicycle shop owner Jared Fisher found one of his major e-bike suppliers was raising its prices by 10% due to new tariffs, he was faced with the decision to eat the new costs himself or pass the increase along to customers.
“If you cut 10% into a bicycle margin, then you might as well get ready to have your exit strategy for your business because you’re not going to be able to operate,” Fisher, who owns several bike shops in Nevada and Utah, told Business Insider. “There’s no way.”
Fisher ultimately decided that being transparent with his customers about why prices were rising on some of his products was the best approach in the face of new tariff-induced costs. He added a new line item directly to the price tags on bikes hanging in his shops, according to Business Insider. On one bike he sells for $7,999, the price tag now shows an additional $300 “government tariff charge.”