The anxiety stemming from President Trump’s tariffs is opening him up to new vulnerabilities on an issue that has long been seen as one of his strengths: his handling of the economy.

Polls released over the last several days have shown growing voter opposition to Trump’s move to impose steep tariffs on the rest of the world.

Though the situation is fluid and voter sentiment could change, the numbers suggest the president has found himself in new, more volatile political territory that has the potential to damage him and the rest of his party heading into the midterms.

“Trump's entire theory of reelection was, ‘I'm a businessman, I'm going to tackle the soaring costs and make it better for you,’” said Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo. “We're doing the opposite of that.”

The economy and inflation proved to be one of Democrats’ weak spots in the 2024 presidential election. While the Biden administration and Vice President Harris’s campaign touted how much inflation had dropped from its 2022 peak and acknowledged it still had progress to make, many voters viewed the state of the economy poorly. Trump overwhelmingly won those voters.

Polls repeatedly showed ahead of and after Election Day that the economy was the most important issue on voters’ minds, and one exit poll from December found that the economy was the top deciding factor in favor of Trump for voters in the seven main battleground states that ultimately all voted for him.

Trump pledged to lower prices on “Day 1,” but his approval rating overall and on the economy has ticked down as inflation has mostly remained roughly the same, above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent goal. Consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level in two years in the University of Michigan’s benchmark survey last........

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