Small business owners’ support for Pres. Donald Trump’s strategy of using reciprocal tariffs to secure fair trade agreements with other countries has surged over the past two months, a new national PublicSquare/RedBalloon survey reveals.
Nearly half (48.8%) say they’ve become more supportive of tariffs as an economic policy over the past two months – six times the 8.0% who’ve become less so, according to the Freedom Economic Index flash poll of more than 50,000 small business owners, conducted April 16-20.
Likewise, nine in ten (91.2%) say the U.S. economy “will benefit from tougher tariff policies toward nations like China,” including 69.9% who think the economy will “strongly” benefit.
Asked about the prospects for their own businesses this year, 77.4% say they’re either strongly (43.2%) or somewhat (34.2%) optimistic that they’ll experience growth.
Fully 61.3% report that recent tariff discussions, policy rollouts, and market reactions have had no effect on their costs. That’s more than twice the 28.9% who say their business costs have increased. Only 10.1% say costs have increased “significantly” due to Trump’s tariffs.