September 18, 2018

By slapping new tariffs on Chinese goods Monday, President Donald Trump ratcheted up a policy that has so far failed to resonate with voters.

The president escalated a trade war with China by slapping 10 percent duties on $200 billion of Chinese products. The levies will rise to 25 percent at the end of the year. Beijing said Tuesday that it will retaliate by putting tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods next week.

Trump won the White House in 2016 partly on a pledge to revise free trade deals to protect American workers — a promise that resonates with many Republicans and Democrats alike. But tariffs, Trump's mechanism to push trading partners to strike new deals, have more voters than not worried about economic damage and more expensive goods, according to polling.

Read more: 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/18/trump-tariffs-on-china-are-unpopular-ahead-of-2018-midterms.html