There is an oft-repeated<\/a> political clich\u00e9<\/a> that says tariffs are bad economics but good politics\u2014the logic being: They might be costly, but they allow politicians to look like they are prioritizing domestic jobs and workers over foreign trade.<\/p>\n

That line turned out to be only half right.<\/p>\n

Voters turned decisively against<\/a> President Donald Trump and Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, delivering a historic beatdown that was the most lopsided midterm result since the post-Watergate wipeout of 1974<\/a>. The results are so overwhelming that it’s probably not accurate to blame any singular issue for the GOP’s meltdown. It was a little bit of everything<\/a>: the corruption, the war, the thuggish immigration enforcement, ongoing inflation, general exhaustion with Trump, and so on.<\/p>\n

Vice President J.D. Vance and others<\/a> in the Republican Party are reportedly trying to pin the blame for this result entirely on the war. “The reason we lost is the war,” Vance told<\/a> The New York Times <\/em>on Wednesday\u2014conveniently pinning all the blame on the one major Trump administration decision that he’s questioned.<\/p>\n

But the tariffs are a major part of the story.<\/p>\n

Tariffs are Trump’s signature economic policy<\/a>. More than that, in fact. They have become the<\/em> signature economic policy for the entire populist movement that has sprung up around Trump. The president promised a “golden age,” and allies like Oren Cass<\/a> and Peter Navarro<\/a> promised a realignment that would bring working-class voters into the GOP for good.<\/p>\n

So how do Americans view this tentpole policy of the populist right?<\/p>\n

According to an NBC News exit poll<\/a> of midterm voters, just 21 percent said the tariffs had helped the national economy. Even fewer voters, just 14 percent, said the tariffs had helped their local economies. Meanwhile, more than 60 percent said the tariffs had caused harm.<\/p>\n