Trump tariffs lose appeal among working-class voters as higher prices become a concern, says political analyst Ronald Brownstein

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are facing resistance even among working-class voters who were expected to support his trade policies, according to a CNN analysis. Polls show that many Americans, including white voters without a college degree, believe the tariffs are hurting their finances as concerns over high prices remain strong.

The analysis by CNN senior political analyst Ronald Brownstein looks at how Trump’s tariff policy is affecting the working-class voters who have traditionally supported his approach to trade.

Tariffs lose support

A 2025 survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that nearly two-thirds of white Americans without a college degree preferred restrictions on imports to protect US jobs rather than fewer restrictions to keep prices low.

But support has fallen as Trump has put his tariffs into effect.

A January Pew survey found that 60% of Americans opposed his tariff increases. In an April CNN/SSRS poll, four times as many Americans said tariffs had hurt their personal finances as said they had helped.

Recent polls in Wisconsin and Ohio, two states with large manufacturing workforces, found about 60% of residents opposed the tariffs. In Michigan and Maine, about two-thirds or more of voters said the latest tariffs on Canada were bad for their states.

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Even among white voters without a college degree, who remain more supportive of Trump’s tariff policy than other groups, nearly three times as many said tariffs had hurt their finances as said they had helped.

Higher prices are a problem

Trump’s trade policies helped him win support among many blue-collar voters in 2016, especially in parts of the US industrial Midwest.

But his second-term tariff policy is much broader. Trump has imposed, removed and brought back tariffs on goods from several countries, including close US allies.

Alan Tonelson, a US trade policy analyst and longtime supporter of import restrictions, said the way Trump has handled the tariffs has also created uncertainty.

“It is an unnerving spectacle to a needless extent,” Tonelson said.

Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who has studied working-class voters for decades, said the bigger problem is the timing of the tariffs.

“He’s decided to do these tariffs in such a way that jumped up prices … at a time of unbelievable anger about the high cost of living,” Greenberg said. The support for tougher trade policies seen during Trump’s first term, he added, “has been completely blown away by this new period of inflation.”

Wisconsin-based Republican strategist Mark Graul said the tariff policy is facing resistance “because it is being blamed for the higher prices that people are experiencing.”

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What about manufacturing jobs?

Trump’s supporters say tariffs can help US manufacturing. Tonelson has pointed to an increase in total manufacturing output during Trump’s second term.

But the number of manufacturing workers remains slightly below the level when Trump returned to office. Federal figures cited in the CNN analysis show 12.638 million people working in manufacturing, compared with 12.673 million at the start of Trump’s second term.

Manufacturing workers make up about 7.5% of all US workers.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a longtime Democratic policy analyst, said, “Even if it’s absolutely the right thing to do, it’s really, really hard to persuade people who are responding to the upfront costs.”

The issue has also given Democrats in manufacturing states a chance to attack Trump’s trade policy. Former Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, a longtime critic of free trade, said, “These tariffs have clearly not worked. … People everywhere are paying more for everything and this new batch of tariffs against Canada is (taking) a disastrous policy and making even more of a disaster.”

Most Republicans continue to support Trump’s tariffs. But the polling cited in the CNN analysis shows that the policy is facing resistance among the same working-class voters who were expected to support it.

For Americans, the main question is whether the possible gains in US manufacturing will be enough to offset the higher prices they are paying now.