Donald Trump's economic decision making has been called into question after his herky-jerky rollout of tariffs against top U.S. trading partners.
The president imposed 25-percent taxes Tuesday on imports from Canada and Mexico, and last month's tariffs against China doubled to 20 percent, but his administration has carved out exceptions for some industries and paused duties on some Mexican goods – and markets have shuddered at the uncertainty.
"You know sometimes if you look under the hood in polling data you get these leading indicators of general, you know, approval, disapproval, only 31 percent of Americans Reuters poll that came out just a couple days ago, think that Trump is doing enough to handle the cost of living or approve of his handling of the cost of living," said Peter Hamby, a founding partner of Puck News. "By the way, only 62 percent of Republicans approve of how he's handling the cost of living in that poll. That's not a good number among Republicans"
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Trump campaigned on the economy, but costs have not gone down and business owners are worried about how the tariffs will impact their bottom line.
"His numbers are down from even just a couple of weeks ago on his handling of the economy," Hamby added. "I wrote a piece the other day about young voters. Remember, he won young men for the first time in two decades in the 2024 election, and I'm citing John Della Volpe polling the social sphere. But he found that his support on the economy has dropped 14 points in just between January and February among young men. At the same time, I have noted this interesting dynamic going on his job approval rating. Trump's is ticking down by a couple of points. His personal favorability rating has actually kind of gone up a little bit since the inauguration, and so I think that what that means is a lot of voters out there might still be giving him not a lot, might still be giving him some goodwill. Maybe that things will get better, but in time, once you drill down on specific questions – Ukraine, economy, tariffs or whatever, not doing so well."
"You know, I think only 60 percent of Americans actually own stocks," Hamby added. "Most people are going to start to feel this at Target, at Walmart, at Best Buy, at Chipotle, you know, at the gas station, perhaps at the grocery store, and they're currently feeling it, and consumer confidence, yes, has gone down for the first time since last year."
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