Rising Resistance
With surprising speed, Americans are starting to see through such sophistry and resistance to the Trump administration is rising. Despite his repeated denials, a Gallup poll taken in April found that 89% of all Americans believe that "higher tariffs will result in" paying more for products." And in late June, as Trump's "Big Beautiful" budget bill neared legislative approval with massive cuts to health care for millions of Americans, a Quinnipiac University poll found 55% of the country opposed the bill and only 29% supported it.
Those polls reflected a growing opposition to Trump's policies. In April, his then-ally Elon Musk poured a record-breaking $25 million into the election for the Wisconsin state Supreme Court, but the opposing Democratic candidate still won a stunning double-digit victory. In June, five million Americans in 2,200 cities and towns across the country marched in anti-Trump "No Kings" rallies, which added up to the largest single day of mass demonstrations in U.S. history.
After only six months of Trump's term, it is still not clear whether his erratic economic policies -- disrupting supply chains, creating labor shortages from mass deportations, and inducing record inflation -- will inflict sufficient social pain to inspire a sustained movement for change. But one thing is already quite clear: without such mass protests and a determined democratic opposition at the ballot box, the Trump administration will persist with a tax and tariff policy aimed at creating the sorts of social inequity and economic privilege not seen since Mark Twain's original Gilded Age. Consequently, the grim economic results down the line are painfully predictable.
Copyright 2025 Alfred W. McCoy
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