Poll shows Trump voters now unsure about tariffs

Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday that President Trump is hitting his own supporters in the gut with international tariffs that weren’t part of the deal voters thought they were getting in 2024.

He said working families in Kentucky, who helped Trump win the state by more than 30 percentage points, are now stuck dealing with higher costs because of a White House trade agenda that keeps changing direction.

According to NBC’s Meet the Press, Andy said many Kentuckians voted for Trump because they believed he’d help them get by easier, not make it harder. “You know, the people of Kentucky, many of them voted for Donald Trump because they thought he’d make paying the bills a little bit easier at the end of the week,” Andy said. “And he’s just making it harder.”

Trump sends 21 tariff threats in one week

Last week, the White House dropped a flood of tariff threats in just a few days. On Monday, Trump sent out letters to 14 different countries warning them about new tariffs that would kick in starting August.

By Wednesday, that number had jumped to 21, with new warnings sent to places like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Moldova.

That same day, he went after Brazil with a threat of a 50 percent tariff, all because of an ongoing criminal trial against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime Trump ally accused of trying to overturn his country’s 2022 election results. Andy called the whole tariff approach a mess, saying Trump’s strategy had no logic.

“This is, what was it, first across the board, then reciprocal, then industry-specific,” Andy said. “I think there was a company-specific tariff proposed. Now, we have tariffs on countries if he doesn’t like who that country is prosecuting. It is chaos. It is increasing costs.”

He also warned that Kentucky’s trade relationships are now at risk. Japan and Canada are two of the state’s biggest international partners. Twenty-two percent of Kentucky’s exports go to Canada, and Japan has made major investments in the state. “Japan invests in Kentucky at a level of almost no other state,” Andy said. “You know, the largest Toyota manufacturing facility isn’t in Japan; it’s in Georgetown, Kentucky.”

Poll shows Trump voters now unsure about tariffs

A poll from Politico and Public First in June shows the trouble doesn’t stop with Democrats. One in four Trump voters said the president’s tariffs are getting in the way of trade negotiations. And when asked about his tariff plan for China, a key piece of his trade policy, less than half of his voters said they’d back it if it meant higher prices at home.

Andy, a Democrat who has won three statewide races in Kentucky, made it clear that Trump’s economic actions aren’t lining up with the promises that got him elected. And it’s not just the trade stuff. He also slammed Trump’s July 4 health care law, which forces people on Medicaid to prove they’re working or lose their coverage.

While some Americans think the work rules make sense, Andy called the move a “ruse” and said it’s going to be brutal for small-town areas. He pointed to a projection that nearly 5 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage by 2034 just because they didn’t fill out the right paperwork. “What they’re doing is they’re doubling the paperwork on everyone, not just able-bodied adults, but everyone,” Andy said.

He said the real aim is to confuse people. “What they’re hoping, sadly, is that parents with a special needs child who are really busy don’t check a box, people who are helping their parents or grandparents with their long-term care needs don’t check a box. And then, they get kicked off their coverage for six months or more. It is wrong. It’s cruel.”

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