Most Americans think tariffs harm the nation’s economy, according to a new survey out Thursday.
The newly released Marist poll found that 56% of Americans think imposing tariffs or fees on imported goods from other countries is harmful to the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, 31% of respondents said tariffs help the economy and 12% said the taxes do not make much of a difference either way, according to the survey.
Moreover, 87% of Democrats and 63% of independents said tariffs hurt the American economy, compared to 20% of Republicans, the poll shows. About two in three Republicans, 66%, think that tariffs bolster the U.S. economy, per the survey.
“The simple fact is that tariffs have hurt the American economy,” David Hebert, economist with the American Institute for Economic Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday. “They have raised the price of raw materials, hurting our manufacturing and construction industries. Far from the renaissance we were promised, over the past twelve months, there are 63 thousand fewer manufacturing jobs and over 100 thousand fewer openings in manufacturing. Despite the desire to build infrastructure for a booming [artificial intelligence] industry, nonresidential construction employment[has] been declining since May.”
The poll’s release comes nearly a year after President Donald Trump unveiled massive “Liberation Day” tariffs on multiple U.S. trading partners on April 2, 2025, claiming they would help start to “make America wealthy again.”
Trump’s tariffs have also recently increased some food prices in the U.S., according to Hebert.
“Tariffs have also raised the price of food, forcing millions of Americans to pay more at the grocery store,” Hebert said. “This has been so severe that President Trump himself admitted as much and actually rescinded tariffs on many food products to alleviate the high prices. And now, with recent trade deals around the world, tariffs are pushing our would-be customers and allies away while strengthening the position of countries such as China and India. A stronger China does not help with our legitimate national security concerns.”
White House Spokesman Kush Desai told the DCNF in a Thursday statement that Trump’s tariffs “have already secured trillions in investments to make and hire in America, and have helped renegotiate over a dozen trade deals that level the playing field for American workers, farmers, and industries.”
“As these investments and trade deals continue to take effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come,” Desai continued.
The majority of Americans, 54%, said bringing down prices should be the top priority for Trump’s administration, according to the Marist poll. Of those surveyed, 22% said controlling immigration should be the administration’s number one priority.
Seventy percent of Democrats and 58% of independents said lowering prices should be the main focus of the administration, the survey suggests. By comparison, a plurality of Republicans, 44%, claimed handling immigration should be the administration’s top priority, while 32% of Republicans said the same about reducing prices, according to the poll.
In November 2025, Trump signed an executive order which modified the scope of his “reciprocal” “Liberation Day” tariffs, qualifying that some agricultural products will no longer be subject to those tariffs, according to a White House fact sheet.
Some U.S. businesses have been concerned they will face potential adverse effects from Trump’s sweeping tariffs in 2026, such as price increases, Politico reported in December 2025.
However, the White House has maintained that Trump’s tariffs are beneficial to the national economy. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted in a Jan. 15 statement posted to X that the president is “Making America Affordable Again through his proven economic formula of powerful tariffs, fair trade deals, massive middle-class tax cuts, energy dominance, and aggressive deregulation.”
Some recent polling has indicated many Americans continue to view Trump’s economy unfavorably.
Still, U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 4.4% in the third quarter of 2025, according to updated data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on Jan. 22. During the second quarter of 2025, real GDP increased 3.8%, the BEA reported.
This NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll national survey of 1,462 U.S. adults was conducted from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30 by the Marist Poll in partnership with NPR and PBS News. Results for all adults (n= 1,462) are statistically significant within plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, while results for registered voters (n=1,326) are statistically significant within plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.
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