The vast majority of Republicans approve of President Trump’s decision to give $12 billion in emergency aid to U.S. farmers, according to a poll released Sunday.
More than three quarters of Republicans, at 78 percent, are in favor of farmers receiving the economic boost, while only 22 percent disapprove of the measure, per the CBS News 2018 Battleground Tracker survey. About a third of Democrats approve, the survey reported.
The aid, intended to help farmers affected by retaliatory tariffs imposed by traditional trade partners in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on imports from China and Europe, among other countries, will be provided through the Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corporation, which provides price supports for farmers.
More broadly, the CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans believed tariffs would result in short-term negative repercussions, whereas 41 percent thought they would lead to worse trade deals in the long term.
On July 6, China placed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods, including soybeans, pork, and chicken. The move was triggered by Trump’s decision to hit China with 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, adding 284 items to the list of goods covered by a duties tax.
The CBS News poll was conducted by YouGov from July 26 to July 28, seeking responses from a national representative sample of 2,420 adults. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
[Opinion: Emergency farm aid is a New Deal solution to a stupid #MAGAnomics problem]
