Posted on 11/05/2026 4:21:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I have always had mixed feelings about Trump's tariff agenda, and here's why.
On economic grounds, tariffs are a terrible idea, but Trump had a point about many of the trade deals in place, which were often built around bribing allies into supporting us politically (or sometimes helping countries that struggle economically). Trump's agenda to renegotiate trade deals had some merit.
Exit polling on tariffs. The GOP has opposed global tariffs since WW2 and for good reason. It’s bad economics and bad politics. Article One gave tariff power to Congress and we must reclaim it. I got this from Erick Erickson. @EWErickson https://t.co/FJLfh6Rgbo— Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ (@RepDonBacon)
But achieving that goal required using tariffs as a club to force new trade deals, and often the tariffs went up, but the deals were not negotiated quickly or completed, so the tariffs stayed in place and drove up prices. Instead of more balanced trade deals, we ended up with higher prices and less long-term benefit than hoped, or the long-term benefits are still too early to materialize.
One silver lining from election night? Free trade was the biggest winner. Voters hated tariff policies, especially in the South and in rural America. https://t.co/AULQyyZ899— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore)
I don't share the view that tariffs were the decisive factor in Tuesday's blowout election, but I definitely think they played a role. And there is a lot of data to back that up. You can plot Trump's decline in popularity with relative precision, and the drop started right around "Liberation Day."
Republicans got blown out because of the tariffs. People will make a million other excuses, but it was, in fact, the tariffs. https://t.co/3kCsdTuBsB— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra)
Some of that is coincidence, but some of it isn't. Republicans have a lot of support from farmers and small businesspeople, and while most people only have a vague sense of the relationship between tariffs and prices, many Republicans actually do. Until recently, the Republicans were the party of free trade and Democrats the party of industrial policy, but on that issue, at least during Trump's term, when opposing all things Trump is the default Democrat position, the roles have reversed.
This is not a counterargument b/c there is no counterargument. Tariffs were widely unpopular, led to a significant erosion of support, & constrained pocketbooks. The Iran War compounded the tariff-related issues by imposing new costs.— Legal Phil (@Legal_Fil) November 5, 2026
Free traders are wrong to point at tariffs and say the war didn't cause the blowout, because the war was almost certainly the driving force behind many of the voters' concerns. Many of the people who oppose the war now would have been absolutely fine with it if it had been short and victorious, of course, but success has many fathers and failure has none. And while America is far from defeated in the Gulf, the war has certainly not gone as planned or promised, and people feel the pain at the pump; the price of diesel has made life very difficult for farmers and the transportation sector.
Wow. From Raymond James. Trump approval mapped onto average gas prices. https://t.co/dcSgGg8NL6— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 3, 2026
I firmly believe that if Trump's tariff policies had worked as promised, they would have benefited the economy and not been an issue in the election. But in many cases, we got retaliatory tariffs, and the optics were bad. A lot of Republicans don't care that every industrialized country was blasting us, but many Republicans and Independents do, and tariffs and the raw hatred emanating from Canada and Europe made them sour.
One of the most common mistakes people make after a stinging loss is to "turtle up," or retreat into a shell and just think, "How can people be so stupid?" A better strategy is to ask, "Why did people do this thing that is so obviously stupid?" and try to address those reasons.
People are what they are, and if we want to win elections, we need to understand what motivates them. Calling people stupid is a sure way to keep losing elections.
Ted Cruz: Food is too high. Gas is too high. Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is too high. Tariffs have made everything too expensive. https://t.co/dhB2iwrZkE— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 5, 2026
If you look at the results of ballot measures, conservative policies won (outside the maddening issue of abortion, which is now a sacrament to many people), so it's not that the country veered toward socialism, at least ideologically.
So the question is, "If Americans don't like socialism, why did they vote for socialists?" And finding the answer is the most important thing today.
Most voters blame Trump for high prices, want Congress to check prez: exit poll https://t.co/RRf8TOYIcM https://t.co/yMeMUQxEP2— New York Post (@nypost)
The two most obvious answers have to do with policies that reduced affordability: tariffs and how the war has turned out. And by that I mean energy prices. No amount of pointing at statistics about economic growth can change people's minds because, to them, the economy feels bad. They're reminded every time they go to the pump.
I don’t think anyone reasonably objective is trying to defend the war per se. Obviously it was a huge contributor to affordability (an extra dollar per gallon of gas, plus diesel), and people felt like another Middle East war was a campaign promise broken.
I guess the question I have is why you can’t see the same thing on the tariffs.
It’s both. The Iran war killed us on fuel. The tariffs killed us on commodities and consumer goods. They are the parents, together, of the unaffordability child.
And the exit polling is unambiguous on tariffs. Two thirds of voters say tariffs have made both the country and their local community less affordable. That’s the clearest policy opinion in the exit polling.
Democrats won mostly because of the affordability issue, which is why they ran on it in the first place. Whether they actually meant it is irrelevant in electoral terms.
Everybody has a pet theory regarding why Republicans got shellacked, and I get that. And it's obvious that it was not one single factor, but a combination.
I think tariffs were a big one.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
One way to think about all of this is that Trump was making several long-term bets which he felt were in America’s best interest.
The war with Iran was about keeping America safe from a nuclear armed Iran. Trumpn didn’t want to kick the can down the road and let another President deal with it.
The tariffs were about trying to bring some manufacturing home and jumpstart industry here.
The problem with both things is that they take a long time, and you don’t necessarily see the positive outcome for years after you feel the immediate pain of higher prices.
Howard Lutnick and Peter Navarro should have been fired before LAST Election Day.
Globalist (most politicians) only care about two things: Replacing White Americans with the 3rd world and outsourcing all our manufacturing to foreign countries.
Runaway inflation cause stuff to become more expensive, even under 4 percent that trump had was ON TOP of the 21% of the Biden years. I think its easier to just blame Tariffs rather than cut back on spending and get inflation under control
There has been tariffs since the begining before the beginning of this country. Hot air would prefer other countries rip us off. I stopped going to that site long ago.
This poll just shows hoe uneducateed the nation has become, when they can't even understand tht this actually helped this nation. Prices were still lower than it was under Biden. But unlike Biden Trunp was bring jobs back to America, and better paying jobs as well. His tax plan also made everyone realize larger incomes. M
watch them explode whr the Democrats take full control.
Don’t shoot the messenger. Hotair is just reporting the results of the post-election surveys.
If that was the goal, then the outcome would have been much different.
There was no benefit along those lines in imposing tariffs on commodities like coffee and cocoa beans that aren’t even produced here in the U.S.
The Japanese walked all over the U.S. in their trade negotiations last year. That’s because Japan doesn’t send political retards and jackasses to those meetings. They send top executives from companies like Toyota, Sony and Komatsu. Meanwhile, the U.S. sent financiers and economists who don’t even know how to run a lemonade stand.
Dems propagandized enough people to blame tariffs and not inflation
They are globalists and want to get rid of all factory jobs in America.
They won’t do anything about inflation (actually they will probably actively make it worse since they are evil)
But they can get rid of tariffs to help their red Chinese masters
More manufacturing in the US doesn’t help the worker either, when robots have replaced him or her. If Elon has his way, almost all manufacturing will be automated in the next 10-15 years.
For absolute power absolutely corrupts.
Problem with their plans are those nations like China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and most likely all Islamic nations that won't go along once the U.S. A. is no longer a free nation. Because they all know that the remaining nations are weak & lazy. Thus they will not muster the resistance needed to overtake them.
Then the battles begin between these elements to see who can capture total control for themselves. The majority become slaves for those who cotrol, or if unwanted are exterminated.
Still better than sending money to China.
The original Trump tax cut could have been allowed to expire and tariffs could have been rebated back based on AGI.
Democrats were against nuclear power because the Russians told them to, they were against building manufacturing plants in the USA because the Russians told them to. So USA started offshoring manufacturing, then using free trade to get goods into the USA, so Democrats opposed that, too because Russians told them to, but then the Soviet Union fell, so Democrats after Clinton started taking orders from Chinese dictators, so they started embracing free trade. Chinese wanted Biden in 2020, they wanted Covid shutdowns, …..
…..yet Karl Marx never saw the 20th century, he saw Czars & serfs, plantations & slaves, never saw middle class people rising, modern medicine, cars, airplanes, Communism in Russia was about sharing the land and having communal farms, it was not made for modern post industrial life. Marx never saw the good that actual capitalism did—- and neither can we, as long as the Federal Reserve thinks its job is to limit economic and job growth to prevent rising wages.
Trump could have lowered the medicare age, made the tax code more fair, explained why capitalism is important and how 1970s liberalism failed. ..leading to stagnation first, inflation second, trying to fix the stagnation by printing money. Instead, Trump adopted a new pseudo Christian persona and launched a holy war against Iran while staying neutral against Ukraine and Russia, with clown like Ted Cruz saying “ God blesses those who bless Israel”. So first Trump gets Roe v Wade overturned against polls that were 75% against it, then he launches a holy war against Iran to protect Israel but not protect Ukraine, but then keeps taking breaks from the war, letting Iran get on the feet, then asking them if the give up yet……as gas prices rise to kill consumer confidence, to kill the stock market rise, to stop the Fed from cutting interest rates by stopping the fall of inflation, turning optimism into pessimism….but then Trump took a break from war to make the campaign about himself after he squandered all the good will and credibility he was building. And the election was an attack on Trump and prices, Trump and abortion, Trump on war, Trump about tariffs, deficits, ICE, Trump about department of education, food stamps, James Comey, Epstein, Trump about about feeling insecure instead of secure. Trump got involved in State politics and lost big. Communism won, Tik Toc and the. view won. Trump never listens to critics or criticism, refused to take a y blame, blamed Fox news.
Tariffs while the national debt skyrockets.
You can’t deindustrialization the USA without tariffs.
I posted this and things like this many times:
There is something like $166 billion in potential tariff refunds that could be subjected to a special 100% income tax and the proceeds used to issue Gas Price Help checks (~$600 each) to owners of insured motor vehicles.
Call your Congressman’s main office now!
Tax the tariff refunds at 100%, then rebate ~$600 to each insured motor vehicle owner.
[posted repeatedly about six months ago by me]
We simply shouldn’t be importing:
1. stuff that can be made and packaged by automated equipment
[we should only be importing high comparative advantage products
like sewn garments and other high assembly time consumer products]
2. ferrous products for motor vehicles
[we export few cars - tariffs on automobile grade steel won’t hurt US automakers]
3. aluminum alloys for aircraft
[we need the absolute ability to build warplanes]
4. inputs to make plastic products
[this stuff is made at industrial scale]
5. life-saving drugs and their precursors
[so our sick people can’t be held hostage by anti-American governments]
The total tariff shall be:
1. 25%, on aircraft grade aluminum alloys and automotive grade ferrous metal,
2. on national security products [we could and should make],
a. initially 0%, and then increasing by 2% at the start of every IRS quarter month after 2025 to 20%, on
I. industrial level components,
II. any drug for lawful retail sale & consumer use,
III. drug, chemical and plastic industrial inputs, other than refinery hydrocarbons and those for making fertilizer,
VI. semiconductors,
V. solar cells and panels,
VI. basic rare earth element products other than ore,
3. 0%, on
a. other raw materials, including coffee beans, fertilizers and their precursors,
base metals, electricity, raw & refined hydrocarbon products,
when vended without resale or short leash supply restriction,
b. foodstuffs, when sourced from a country for which the Secretary of Agriculture justly holds in good standing
for lack of undue impediment on import of US agricultural products generally vendable in the USA,
4. tariffs paid on section 1 and 2 imports, except from China,
may creditable on a one-to-one basis after bona fide export of manufactured products containing them
via any optional scheme the Secretary of Commerce may allow a bona fide manufacturing exporter to participate in.
The base tariff, on all imports not assigned a total tariff, shall be:
1. 20%, on items of a type that have been sold at retail that can be made and packaged by automated equipment,
2. 10%, on any other product,
3. 200%, on a service such as gambling or pornography historically banned by law, or
4. 10%, on any other service.
The base tariff for a particular import shall be:
1. increased 2% per dollar as estimated by the Secretary of Commerce,
on the industry wage shortfall of a key source country compared to the USA,
up to 20%, but levied only if the country is industrially advanced,
2. increased by the percentage of the latest 12-month US<->international commercial cash flow US shortfall,
excluding most raw material transactions,
as to be estimated by the Secretary of Commerce, up to
a. 10%, if the key source country is industrially advanced,
b. 5%, otherwise,
3. increased by the percentage of the latest 12-month US<->the key source country commercial cash flow US shortfall,
excluding most raw material transactions,
as to be estimated by the Secretary of Commerce, of up to
a. 10%, if the key source country is industrially advanced,
b. 5%, otherwise,
4. adjusted based on the latest 12-month US<->foreign exchange rate change,
as to be computed at least annually by the Secretary of Commerce, with
a. proportional addition by up to 5%, when unfavorable to the US dollar,
b. proportional reduction by up to 5%, when favorable to the US dollar,, but to not less than 10% tariff,
5. as directed by the President of the United States and otherwise allowed by law,
adjusted based on domestic producer profitability, by industry and/or product type,
except when the import is a garment from a country that is not industrially advanced,
or contains intellectual property of key value significance,
as shall be calculated by the Secretary of Commerce, with
I. a 10% addition, no domestic producer of product or service type,
II. addition of calculated percentage that is less than 10%,
III. reduction by calculated percentage that is less than 10%, but to not less than 10% tariff.
For tariff purposes, a country is to be considered industrially advanced if it:
1. exports vehicles sold in the USA, other than motorcycles, which can be driven on a federal interstate highway,
2. produces an aircraft, or more than 10% of an aircraft by value, when such aircraft is certified by the FAA,
3. enriches uranium,
4. produces weapons for export to the USA which had a listed import value in excess of $100 million
in a prior 12-month period less than 24 months past,
5. is considered as such by the Secretary of Commerce for reasonable cause.
There shall be no tariff on bartered items internal to a motor vehicle organization, bartered beverage exchange system, or other barter system approved for tariff exemption by and justly held in good standing with the Secretary of Commerce.
[Certain dollar amounts on apparel, electronic and stuff typically sold below any possible US production amount
should be tariff exempt, not never the whole item regardless of cost. We don’t need to be importing $1,000 cellphones that
could be made in the USA for far less.]
The Secretary of Commerce may by regulation provide tariff exemptions up to the following amounts:
1. $100 on a laptop or personal computer
2. $60 on a smartphone
3. 10 cents per square inch of LCD screen
4. $45 per hard disk drive
5. $1 per first GB of solid-state memory and 20 cents for each additional GB
6. $5 on a shirt, blouse or dress
7. $4 on a pair of pants or skirt
8. $1 on an undergarment
9. $15 on a suit
10. 10 cents per inch of sewing, up to $2 on shoes and any other garment including dolls clothing
11. 80% of the genuine wholesale value of material in a garment
12. 90% of the genuine wholesale value of precious metal in an item of jewelry
13. such amounts on kitchen appliances that do not exceed
80% of values of competitively priced basic models as of June 1, 2023
14. such amounts on hand tools, powered and unpowered, that do not exceed
80% of values of competitively priced basic models as of June 1, 2023.
The Secretary of Commerce or any federal judge shall refuse admission to the US to products whose ability to be supplied to the US market might be the result of a coercive technology transfer agreement, patent infringement or technology or trade secret theft.
Trump boasts tariffs creating ‘GREAT WEALTH’ as he predicts ‘pricing’ will decide 2026 midterm elections
NY Post ^ | 12/27/25 | Geoff Earle
President Trump championed his import tariffs Saturday as an economic game changer — while predicting the upcoming midterm elections will hinge on “pricing.”
Trump was given the mandate of heaven JUL-NOV 2024, which he promptly shattered with his selfishness & pride.
(Susie Wiles enters the chat)
Now all the momentum has been squandered by horrible decisions/actions, instead of the America First edict MAGA entrusted him to execute.
Now the Free $hit Army, where anything goes & there’s no shame, will destroy what’s left of the U$ofA from within...
Next up: American Balkanization (If we’re lucky).
Looks like ol’ Ben Franklin was 100% right; The Democratic Republic under the rule of Natural Law should *never* have been discarded (FDR Emergency Powers from Mar 1993 to date).
“Many things lost in life can be restored; however, time misused can never be recovered. Once the sun goes down, the day is forever gone.” — John Bevere
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
