As President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans sent stocks tumbling and economists warning of a broader economic slowdown, many of Trump’s supporters say they support the move as part of a broader vision for the U.S. economy, even if prices rise.
But a slice of 2024 Trump voters are deeply concerned, illustrating the real potential political peril for the president and his party.
In interviews, 20 swing-state Trump voters who participated in last month’s national NBC News poll spoke about Trump and his tariffs after the president's policy announcement last week. Most are either fully on board with Trump’s vision — with many explicitly saying they are willing to live through short-term economic pain if it means achieving his vision of reordering the global economy to America’s benefit — or are cautiously optimistic that the tariffs will be effective negotiating tools.
Veronica Rogers, a retiree in Georgia, was among those who said that Trump’s long-term goals of bringing back jobs to the United States outweigh her concerns about temporary higher prices.
“Whether that’d be short term, or that’d be long term, I don’t know. I’m not an economist. But I do know that there’s billions and trillions of dollars that can be spent here to build industry to keep from paying tariffs. So, that sounds good to me,” she said. She was stunned that some people were taken aback by the scale of Trump’s tariffs, noting how frequently he talked about tariffs while campaigning.
“Nothing they’re doing is news to people that voted for him,” Rogers, 63, said.
Still, a handful of voters, including those who backed Trump in 2020 and 2024, warned that his tariff rollout threatens to squander one of his major campaign promises: to lower prices for Americans in the long term. The NBC News poll conducted in March, before Trump fully unveiled his tariff plans, found that a majority of Americans (55%) disapproved of his handling of inflation and the cost of living, while 54% disapproved of his handling of the economy overall. Members of the GOP were far more likely to give Trump passing marks on the economy than were independents and Democrats, but about 1 in 10 Republicans expressed displeasure with his handling of the key issues.
“The track he’s on right now is just to piss the Democrats off, and I think it’s kind of working, but no, I’m not really too happy with the way things are going right now. He’s really gone off the wall,” said Cathy Phillips, a 64-year-old Pennsylvanian who voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024.
“We’re scraping pennies together, I know how hard it is for us,” she continued. “I can’t imagine how hard it is for seniors who are even older than us. Something’s gotta give somewhere.”
Trusting Trump
Yet, for many of these voters, Trump’s decision to put heavy tariffs on some of America’s biggest trading partners, such as the European Union, China and Vietnam, as well as most other countries, is exactly what they signed up for.
“I feel like everything that I voted for has come to fruition already and more,” said Melanie Renaud, a 52-year-old dental hygienist from North Carolina.
Some point to local factories that shuttered and moved jobs overseas, leaving behind crumbling communities, to argue for drastic steps to bring jobs back to the U.S. Others believe some of the sky-high tariff rates are a hard-edged negotiating tactic aimed at compelling countries to make immediate concessions that will help the American economy in the long term. Others said it’s a needed response to an economy they believe wasn’t working for them.
“This trade war has to happen in order for fair trade to happen. And once fair trade is accomplished, I think prices will even back out,” said Reece Westfall, a 30-year-old Pennsylvania Republican.
“There’s a lot more to this than the price of everything,” Westfall continued, echoing recent arguments from Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Donna J., 55, who declined to give her last name, said that while her part of North Carolina had a long history of textile mills like the one in which her grandfather worked, the town “basically folded in upon itself” once that factory closed. “What you get used to, sometimes, is the very thing that will kill you,” she said of how the globalized economy has hurt communities like hers. She said Americans need to “learn some patience and understand this is for the betterment of everyone,” calling the tariffs an example of Trump’s “promises made, promises kept.”
Some criticize Trump’s moves
But other voters who backed Trump were critical of the president’s approach. David, a Wisconsin man who voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024, said the administration is “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.” (Like some others who were critical of Trump, he declined to share his last name because of concerns about retribution or harassment.)
“I cannot see a reasonable businessperson in the near term looking at this and saying, ‘I feel confident that I can invest millions of dollars into a new production facility and create new jobs in the U.S.,” he said, later adding, “I was expecting a more reasoned and logical rollout.”
David said he voted for Trump because of the economy, believing a continuation of Biden administration policies if Kamala Harris had won the election would not have been good for the country.
But despite his hesitance about Trump’s economic policies, David said he would still vote for him if given a chance for a do-over, even if it was less than a full-throated support.
“I would like to think that there would be a better option in the future,” he added.
Another Trump voter, who declined to give his first or last name because of concerns about harassment or retaliation, said he now sees his vote for Trump as a “big mistake.” The 64-year-old Arizona man said his retirement savings have fallen 35% in recent weeks, and he may now have to delay his retirement.
“It’s happened without any reasonable explanation,” he said “I don’t understand. I don’t understand how to declare a trade war on the world, how to betray the allies, I can’t understand it.”
Seeing a potential exit strategy
Many of the Trump voters who spoke to NBC News said they didn’t believe the high tariffs would last, instead predicting that they would compel other countries to the negotiating table.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next month or two, we see a lot of these countries do bilateral negotiations,” said John, a 30-year-old from Arizona who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2024 but supported Joe Biden in 2020.
“Part of these extremely high tariffs are designed, in a sense, in my belief, as a way to get more from these countries,” he continued.
Ultimately, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters said they would be personally willing to take their lumps now, both in terms of potential rising prices and an unstable stock market, if it meant that the president's plans to reorient the global economy succeed, because they believe it will leave a better future for their children.
“I’m willing to not look at my [401k] numbers on a daily basis. I’m willing to trust President Trump that it will turn around,” said Jodi L., a 62-year-old from Michigan. “I have to do my part. I can call up and complain all I want, but I believe it’s on the right path to turning this country around. I believe in him and what he’s said he would do because he’s proven himself in less than 100 days.”
“I’m willing to take the knock if that’s what it takes for the long term.”
Sherry Behr, a 67-year-old Republican from Pennsylvania, said, “I trust President Trump, that in six months, a year, we’ll start seeing a difference.”
Most Trump voters said they could not envision a scenario that would cause them to pull their support for him. But a few noted there might be a financial breaking point depending on how high prices go, and for how long.
“If it goes like $100 for a pair of shoes, for stupid shoes, then we’re gonna have issues then,” said Nyssa, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom in Pennsylvania, who said she backed Trump in hopes he would bring down grocery prices. “But a couple bucks here and there is not gonna really hurt anything.”
And for a smaller few, the tariff debate has demonstrated that Trump isn’t following through on a key promise, either because of a perceived lack of attention or push to prioritize vengeance over solutions.
David, the Wisconsin man, noted that Trump specifically criticized the Biden administration on high prices during the 2024 campaign.
“And then shortly after coming into office, all sudden the tune changes, and it’s like, ‘Well, we’re going to see some prices go up,’” he said.
Chelsea Linares, a 33-year-old insurance account manager in Georgia, told NBC News that Trump’s work on the economy has been a “slower start that I would say myself, and others, have anticipated,” noting prices are still high. While she’s still “optimistic,” she thinks “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“Even people that support Trump are probably going to be more pissed than they thought,” she said, adding that she still supported him.
Blake, a three-time Trump voter from Arizona who is in his 30s, described himself as someone in “full ideological agreement” with the president on many issues. He said he would have scored Trump a 10/10 for his administration’s efforts in its first few days on issues including immigration and ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
But he panned the tariff rollout as “lazy,” adding that the push could squander the full control of Washington that voters gave Republicans after the 2024 election.
“I could be wrong, but I feel the cannonball way they came out with this is maximizing the pain without necessarily optimizing the speed we recover from it,” he said.
