Survey Says is a weekly column rounding up three of a very powerful polling traits or information factors it’s worthwhile to find out about. You’ll additionally discover data-based updates on previous Each day Kos reporting, plus a vibe examine on a development that’s driving politics.
Ticked off about tariffs
President Donald Trump has wager his second presidency on tariffs, calling his implementation of them “Liberation Day” and even praising the phrase “tariff” as “the most beautiful” within the dictionary. And now that Individuals have seen tariffs’ deleterious results on costs and the financial system, they hate them.
Why such a powerful condemnation of Trump’s signature financial coverage? As a result of 71% of Individuals inform the identical ballot that Trump’s tariffs will make inflation worse, and inflation stays their No. 1 concern, based on new information from Gallup.
In one other new ballot, Gallup finds that 70% of Individuals assume Trump’s tariffs will value their nation more cash within the brief run than these tariffs herald. And 62% assume the identical factor will occur in the long term. Put merely, Individuals are skeptical that every one this chaos will ever repay.
And so far as Republican assist goes, it’s not nice, Bob. Thirty-six % of Republicans assume tariffs will value the U.S. extra within the brief run than the tariffs herald, and even 22% see the identical factor taking place in the long term, based on Gallup. And 82% say the tariffs will increase the prices of issues they purchase.
Thus far, tariffs are popping partisan bubbles—and it may worsen if Trump will increase them and as soon as they result in noticeable value will increase.
Apparently, not even Trump can screw with individuals’s cash and get off scot-free, as is clear from his tanking approval ranking:
States of hazard
Nineteen of the 25 most harmful cities are in states that Trump gained in final yr’s presidential election. And 15 are in states Trump gained by greater than 10 proportion factors—in different phrases, straight-up crimson states. Throughout all 25 cities, Trump gained their states by a mean of 9.4 proportion factors final yr.
In fact, the overwhelming majority of those cities are headed up by Democratic or Democratic-aligned mayors and metropolis councils. Nonetheless, the cities are sometimes a blue spot in a crimson ocean of a state, and as such, they’re topic to state legal guidelines—legal guidelines which are incessantly invasive in how cities do their enterprise.
Utilizing what is named preemption, crimson states are passing wide-ranging legal guidelines and forcing localities to stick to conservative insurance policies. Most notably, on the subject of the problem of public security, crimson states commonly block blue cities from tightening gun legal guidelines, resembling in Cleveland (No. 7), St. Louis (No. 2), and Memphis, Tennessee (No. 1).
Members of the family of the victims of the Uvalde college taking pictures carry a Day of the Lifeless altar honoring the lives of the victims in a procession from the Texas State Capitol in Austin to the mansion of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 1, 2022.
However crimson states additionally cease blue cities from being safer in different methods. For example, in 2023, Texas fought Houston (No. 19) to adjust to a state ban of necessary water breaks for outside employees. In that very same yr, the state set a record-high for the variety of heat-related deaths.
Quite a few crimson states additionally preempted blue cities from implementing social distancing or different public well being measures through the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Missouri, Tennessee, Utah, and plenty of different states that host one of many “most dangerous” cities ban localities from rising their minimal wage, blocking many employees from making a dwelling wage.
Many of those risks are coverage points, and the dominance of conservative politics from the state degree to the federal degree—to say nothing of the judiciary—is clearly making the U.S. a extra harmful place to dwell, particularly in contrast with different high-income international locations.
The Vietnam Conflict at 50
It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the autumn of Saigon, identified in Vietnam as Reunification Day, marking the tip of the Vietnam Conflict. New polling reveals the struggle stays controversial, however regardless of younger Individuals main the anti-war motion on the time, younger Individuals right this moment are extra supportive of the struggle than those that lived by it and its rapid aftermath.
Forty-four % of Individuals assume the Vietnam Conflict was unjustified, whereas 29% say it was justified, based on a ballot from Emerson School for Nexstar Media. That’s the next “not justified” quantity than for some other main U.S.-involved struggle since World Conflict II. It’s additionally solely considered one of two wars—the opposite being the struggle in Afghanistan—the place fewer individuals say the struggle was justified than say it wasn’t.
Nonetheless, Individuals ages 18-29 are shut to separate on whether or not the U.S. ought to have entered the Vietnam Conflict, with 48% saying it was the fitting factor to do and 52% saying the U.S. ought to’ve stayed out.
Typically, the ballot means that the older an American is, the extra probably they’re to say the U.S. ought to’ve stayed out. Solely a 3rd of these ages 50-59 and 60-69 say coming into the struggle was the fitting transfer. And the bottom “right thing” quantity comes from Individuals ages 70 and older.
That final information level is sensible after taking one key occasion into consideration: the Vietnam Conflict draft. Throughout seven lottery drawings, the army drafted American males born between 1944 and 1956. That signifies that a large portion of the ballot’s 70-plus age group was thought-about for the draft. Even a few of the 60-69 age group would’ve been thought-about, on condition that the youngest draft-age Individuals on the time of the final lottery could be 68 years outdated now.
As we speak’s younger Individuals being break up on the U.S. position within the struggle might should do with them not having that a lot of a stake in what occurred or just not realizing a lot about it.
Any updates?
Vibe examine
Although voters hate Trump’s tariffs, they nonetheless narrowly belief the GOP greater than the Democratic Occasion on the subject of the financial system. Forty-three % of registered voters belief Republicans extra, whereas 41% belief Democrats extra, based on Civiqs. Fourteen % belief neither social gathering.
Republicans are besting Democrats at financial messaging—as a result of the proof isn’t on the GOP’s aspect. The U.S. financial system performs significantly better underneath Democratic presidents than underneath Republican ones, based on a 2024 report by the Economics Coverage Institute that checked out GDP development, the unemployment and inflation charges, and myriad different components.
Marketing campaign Motion
