Survey Shows Swing Voters Worried Retailers Will Use Trump’s Tariffs to Rip Consumers Off

A majority of swing voters are worried retailers will use President Donald Trump’s tariffs as an excuse to rip consumers off, a Protecting America Initiative (PAI) survey found.

The survey found swing voters are in alignment with Trump when it comes to trade policy, revealing that 43 percent trust Trump to stand up for American workers, compared to 39 percent who trust retail CEOs.

Per the survey:

Major retailers have fallen out of favor with voters in key battleground districts thanks to a problem spanning decades — their role in the outsourcing of US jobs and manufacturing to China. These respondents clearly believe retailers are to blame for the United States becoming too reliant on China for our needs and believe they have a responsibility to help bring manufacturing back home.

Further, the survey found that swing district voters believe retailers engaged in price gouging during the coronavirus pandemic, and they fear they will exploit the tariffs to do so again.

The survey presented the following to respondents: “Retailers exploited the COVID pandemic to make record profits and they never brought prices back down. Now they’re going to use tariffs as their next excuse to rip off the American people.”

Three-quarters of those surveyed agreed with that statement, and of those, 50 percent “strongly” agreed.

The survey was taken May 1-6, among 1,000 likely voters in 19 key battleground districts across the country.

This reality comes as the major retailer Walmart announced this week that prices will likely go up, blaming Trump’s tariffs.

“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Thursday on an earnings call.

“But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” he continued. “The higher tariffs will result in higher prices.”

However, this follows a positive economic report in April. As Breitbart News’s Economics Editor John Carney reported, “Headline inflation came in at just 0.2 percent for the month. Core inflation—excluding food and energy—also ticked up just 0.2 percent. Year-over-year, the all-items index slowed to 2.3 percent, the lowest reading since February 2021.”

As Carney put it, “Tariff inflation is everywhere…except in consumer prices.”

Further, in another “Tariffmageddon” fail, retail sales edged upward in April, as U.S. consumers actually spent more at restaurants, appliance stores, and more:

Spending at restaurants and bars increased by 1.2 percent last month, an indication that U.S. consumers are not shying away from discretionary spending despite a volatile stock market and Wall Street analyst warnings that tariffs might hamper economic growth. Earlier this week, the Labor Department’s consumer price index for dining out increased 0.5 percent.

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