President Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters, over the years, have had to swallow, and defend, an awful lot.
The ‘Access Hollywood’ tape. The catastrophic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. A violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. And about five hundred other things, large and small, in the last nine years.
Will that continue, should the “Liberation Day” tariffs fail to succeed, and end up leading to a full-on economic calamity?
MAGA Is Loyal to Trump… For Now
According to a Bloomberg News analysis published Tuesday, the MAGA base appears likely to show patience with Trump, at least for the time being.
The story cited a Reuters/Ipsos poll published the day the tariffs were announced that a majority of Republican voters approve of Trump’s handling of “ jobs, trade, and the economy.”
Multiple Republican operatives were quoted in the Bloomberg story as stating that GOP voters, as admirers of Trump’s business acumen, trust him on the economy.
But the truth is, rank-and-file support for Donald Trump has always been way more about trust in Trump personally than any particular ideological stance. However, it’s a different story for high-profile Trump backers.
Some of the more online-brained among the Trump base have even developed a somewhat ugly online theory of the case, and the idea that the tariffs will lead to the end of predominantly female-led “email jobs,” force women back into the home and bring about a renaissance in traditional social conservatism.
That seems unlikely to happen in real life. But Trump does face the prospect of losing rank-and-file support should the economy seriously tank- and especially if necessary products become more expensive.
After all, Trump rode worries about inflation and his implication that he could fix them, into a second term in office.
A Contradictory Coalition
Trump was elected in 2024 with an uncommonly unique coalition, very different from the one that swept him into office in 2016.
But one thing many observers noted afterward was that the new Trump coalition consists of a lot of people and groups with opposing views and that whatever the administration does, someone’s going to end up unhappy.
Trump’s campaign appealed to both pro-Israel Zionists and Arab Americans more skeptical of Israel. It gained the support of both podcast-loving bros and the Christian right, who have opposing views on numerous fronts. And it also drew support from both the working class and the billionaire business elite.
All of those groups will have reason to turn on Trump, should he side against them on the issues they most care about.
Surprising Voices of Skepticism on Trump and Tariffs
Even Elon Musk, who has been called Trump’s co-president, has vocally objected to the tariffs, and also gotten into a feud with Peter Navarro, Trump’s most trusted adviser on the subject of trade.
Bill Ackman, a Wall Street titan who long donated to Democrats but became a high-profile Trump backer during the 2024 cycle after leading the charge against college presidents he deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel, has stood up against Trump’s tariffs and called for the president to declare a pause. Wall Street, indeed, seems nearly unanimous in opposing Trump’s tariff policy.
On Monday morning, a post from an X account called “Walter Bloomberg” — falsely implying a connection with Bloomberg News — reported on a nonexistent quote from a Trump economic adviser that such a pause was coming. This caused a swing of trillions of dollars in the markets before the White House denied it and markets realized the news was fake.
Days Are Numbered
One thing that is important to remember is that while Trump only returned to office less than 100 days ago, ‘the Donald’ is in his final term as president and that not only means that Trump won’t ever be on a ballot again, but also that the Trump era now has an expiration date, in a way that it never has before.
Will Republicans, looking to the post-Trump future, finally break with the president they’ve been loyal to until now? Should a recession happen, that’s very possible.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter
