Former Trump Aide Warns 'Liberation Day' Tariffs Will Crush His Popularity: 'Not a Winning Message'

A former Donald Trump aide anticipated that upcoming tariff announcements, which the president has dubbed "Liberation Day," will actually be bad news for his popularity given their economic impact.

Speaking on CNN, former aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said it's the "worst news that you could be announcing today." "The number one thing Donald Trump needs to get his arms around is the cost of living, and that's where his numbers keep sinking," Farah added.

In fact, a recent CBS News poll showed that most Americans believe Trump has focused too much on tariffs and not enough on lowering prices. Overall, almost two thirds of Americans (64%) believe the Trump administration is not focusing enough on lowering prices, while 31% believes his focusing the right amount and just 5% answering that his focusing too much. On the flipside, 7% believe the admin not focusing enough on tariffs, while 38% believe it's doing so in the right amount and 55% that it's putting too much attention on the issue.

Furthermore, the survey showed that a majority of respondents say tariffs will likely lead to higher prices rather than economic benefits, even though the administration has argued that tariffs could bring long-term advantages in that regard.

Farah Gryffin said in another passage of the interview that another Fox News poll showed that almost 70% of voters "think tariffs are going to increase prices." "When I worked for Trump, he believes in tariffs – it's one of the core policy issues he truly thinks work. He believes in onshoring more American jobs, he thinks Americans are taken advantage of, but in the first term, there were people around him like Steve Mnuchin, Robert Lighthizer, Mike Pence, who would say, 'Okay, use them in a targeted way as sort of leverage to get better deals for Americans, but do not do sweeping, across-the-board tariffs," she said.

Republicans are also conceding that tariffs won't yield immediate benefits for the population. Senator Tim Sheehy was recently asked about the topic by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. "I was looking at the numbers – 95% of Montana's imported goods come from Canada, Mexico, and China," she began. "Is this going to hurt people in your state?"

"There's absolutely gonna be short-term pain," Sheehy admitted. "The president's been clear about that. Everyone has. I mean, if you're gonna remodel your house to make it better in the end, it's gonna be really annoying in the short term when your house is getting remodeled and there's drywall dust everywhere and there's workers in your living room. The reality is that remodel has gotta happen in order to make things stronger and more stable on the back end."

Sheehy went on to reiterate his support for the implementation of tariffs, stating that foreign nations were "taking advantage" of the American economy and that tariffs provided necessary protections against this.

Trump reportedly has a fall guy if the decision backfires: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Politico reported on Tuesday that Lutnick was one of the biggest proponents of the measures, set to be announced by Trump as part of "Liberation Day." That means that he could also be on the receiving end of consequences if the economic fallout of the announcement displeases Trump.

Citing people within the administration, the outlet added that "Trump world is ready to play the blame game if things go poorly" and "all the fingers will be pointing at Lutnick."