Majority of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration policies, but not his tariffs

While a majority of Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, most Americans say President Trump has focused too much on tariffs — which they believe will end up raising prices — and not enough on lowering prices.

According to the new poll, conducted by CBS, most Americans say the Trump administration is focused too much on tariffs, and by contrast, is not focused enough on lowering prices.

72% of Americans say that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices in the short term, compared to only 5% of Americans saying that the tariffs will lower prices. That’s expected. But a plurality of Americans, 47%, say that even in the long term, prices will increase as a result of tariffs, compared to 29% saying that prices will decrease in the long term, and 24% saying they will stay the same.

Still, a slight plurality of 38% of Americans say that former President Biden is most responsible for inflation, with 34% saying that Trump is most responsible. 19% say that Biden and Trump are equally responsible and 9% say neither men are most responsible for the inflation.

On the positive side for Trump, 58% of Americans approve of his administration’s program to deport illegal immigrants from the US. And Mr Trump’s overall job rating is 50% approve, 50% disapprove.

Despite the near decade straight of negative coverage on Trump, this approval rating is one of the highest in the President’s political career. While the left and their allies in the media are trying to portray a President free falling in terms of support, Mr Trump’s approval is mostly quite robust and persistent.

With that being said, leaning too much into tariffs seems to be an unwise course of action, something that, if continued for a long time, will quickly erode Trump’s political capital.

While it should be said that Trump always meant to use his political capital and has a limited amount of time to enact his agenda, losing his political capital so quickly and on tariffs, will likely weaken the President in an unnecessary way, and provide an opening for a still floundering Democratic Party.

Continuing political strength has a lot to do with having a deft touch, and knowing when and how to execute your political play. Mr Trump has time and again shown us that he can do this. But he has also committed many political blunders. Will his second term be more of the former or the later? With Donald Trump, it’s anyone’s guess.