A bull in the international china shop this week, if President Trump won’t reconsider his protectionist rampage, he might as well enjoy it while he still can. The electorate hasn’t learned to love the tariff and those voters may deliver a new Congress next year bringing a simmer to the trade chaos.
A new WSJ/NBC News poll found that voters recoil from the idea of slapping tariffs on trading partners.
Asked how comfortable they were voting for a congressional candidate who supports tariffs on goods imported from trading partners like Canada, Germany, and China, 27 percent showed enthusiasm. How many had reservations or were very uncomfortable with the idea? A whopping 51 percent.
Those numbers won’t give this president pause. He does what he wants. But they should give some rare comfort to the rest of the G-7 nations gathered in Canada this week. Tariffs are already unpopular in Congress and if control of the House, or control of both the House and the Senate, switch hands, Trump could be reined in by an increasingly pro-trade legislature.
Because Republicans enjoy unified government, it is easy to forget how alone Trump is on tariffs. Looking at industry in their own districts and states though, GOP candidates worry that the president’s protectionism could erase his most sellable achievement to date.
“We’ve got a tremendous economic story to be told right now,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 3 Senate Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “The tariff issue has the potential to step on that.”
The WSJ/NBC News polling backs up what Thune and company already know. A sizeable chunk of the electorate instinctively oppose tariffs. If that reflex pushes them to the polls, the days of Trump riding totally roughshod on the world economic stage could be numbered.
