Even MAGA Voters Are Turning on Trump’s Tariffs

Annabelle Gordon / REUTERS President Donald Trump’s tariffs are facing growing resistance from his own base, with new polling showing MAGA voters turning against the policy.

After trade talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed in late August, Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian products under a previously unused provision of the Tariff Act of 1930.

Trump also invented a bogus new name for Lake Ontario—“Lake America.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by increasing counter-tariffs on American steel and aluminum and introducing new duties on other U.S. goods, set to go into effect on September 29.

The dispute between the two close allies has been bubbling since the beginning of Trump’s second term, when he threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

Trump has argued that the trade war is necessary for border security and that tariffs are needed to create more “fair” and reciprocal trade.

“Canada is destroying itself by allowing millions and millions of people into the Country, essentially unchecked and unvetted, and who are causing problems that will soon be too big to handle.

It is a Liberal takeover that will end very badly.

Already showing up in their numbers.

Big unemployment. ‘Oh Canada!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday.

But new polling shows that even his biggest supporters don’t support the policy.

Among self-identified MAGA Trump voters, only 38 percent said he was right to impose the tariffs despite the potential political cost, while another 40 percent said the move was justified but should have been delayed until after the midterms, according to a Politico/Public First poll conducted September 13–15.

The survey also found that half of Americans do not think tariffs are worth it if they drive up prices, including more than a third of Trump voters from 2024.

Overall, just 26 percent said Trump was right to impose the new Canadian tariffs, compared with 56 percent who said he was wrong.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.