When President Trump heads to Capitol Hill tonight to lay out his new approach to tariffs, he will face an audience increasingly skeptical of his trade policies.
Although Trump has said he doesn’t need Congress, the president has seen his support on the tariffs evaporate — support accelerated by the Supreme Court’s decision to strip him of his sweeping emergency duties.
Among lawmakers, there were bipartisan votes in both chambers to condemn his tariffs, and Democrats pledged to block an extension of new Section 122 tariffs when they come before Congress for review within 150 days.
Among voters, some polls show Americans oppose Trump’s tariffs by a margin of nearly two to one. Just this week, a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs, while only 34% approve.
Read more: The latest news and updates on Trump’s tariffs
Tariffs will be one of many topics to watch Tuesday night as the president tries to sell his economy amid new levels of trade uncertainty after a court ruled 6-3 that his package of tariffs was illegal.
Trump will face off against lawmakers, as well as Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump nominated and have ruled against him on the tariffs. He called their tariff decision “an embarrassment to their families.”
Trump, meanwhile, said he viewed the speech as a victory tour and claimed on Monday that he was overseeing “the greatest economy we’ve ever had” despite the polls.
“This is going to be a long speech because we have a lot to talk about,” he said.
Congress is unlikely to block Trump from taking new tariff action, but the White House is also unlikely to have broad congressional support.
A narrow bipartisan majority voted against Trump’s tariffs, with Republican leaders acknowledging their party is divided on the issue.
“I think it’s going to be a challenge to reach legislative consensus on any path forward on the tariffs,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Monday.
“So the question going forward is how to work with the administration from the congressional level to get the right plan,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who voted against a recent measure rebuking Trump for imposing tariffs on Canada, said during an appearance on Yahoo Finance this week.
“Tariffs are a tool to force trade renegotiations,” he added. “We’ve seen it.”
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have pledged to block an extension of the Section 122 tariffs the president imposed this week when they come up for congressional review in late July.
Trump, who has not expressed concerns publicly, said in a social media post on Monday, “I didn’t have to go back to Congress to get tariff approval. It’s already been given.”
Read more: 5 ways to avoid financial tariffs
Trump’s tariff push is expected to be part of a larger message touting his ability to manage the economy, rolling out new measures to cut costs and perhaps boost Americans’ ability to save after a year of declining public sentiment.
RealClearPolitics’ recent economic polls show that an average of just 40.8% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 55.6% disapprove. The president’s numbers on inflation are even worse.
A CNN poll found that only 32% of Americans think Trump has the right priorities, with an overall approval rating of 36% and that his approval ratings have declined across demographics and ideologies over the past year.
In a new Marist poll, 57% of respondents said the state of the nation is “not very strong” or “not strong at all.”
Democrats are eager to highlight and capitalize on the public’s bad mood in the coming months before the November midterm elections.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the left-leaning Foundation Partnership, told reporters on a conference call this week that the economy was Trump’s “superpower” during his first term and that overall approval ratings were high.
But now the situation has reversed.
She said it was “really an incredible reversal of fortune for the president and the Republican Party.”
Ben Werschkul is Yahoo Finance’s Washington correspondent.
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