A new issue of The Takeaway examines how households understood the 2025 tariff policy and how their beliefs changed when they were presented with research-based findings from the previous U.S.–China tariff war.

COLLEGE STATION, TX (May 2026) – Yoon Joo Jo examines how U.S. households interpreted President Trump’s April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, highlighting how economic expectations were shaped by both policy details and political identity. Using a randomized survey experiment, Jo presented different groups of respondents with research-based evidence from the earlier U.S.–China tariff war to assess whether that information would shift views on the economic effects of the new tariffs. The Takeaway suggests that research-based information can influence household expectations, but deeply held prior beliefs often reinforce partisan divides. These results underscore the role of partisanship in shaping public responses to economic policy, suggesting that facts alone may not be enough to generate consensus or broader policy support.

You can read the full policy brief at “How Americans Read Tariff Policy: The Role of Partisanship in Economic Expectations.” The author, Yoon Joo Jo is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and a Mosbacher Research Fellow at Texas A&M University.

 The Takeaway is a publication of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics, and Public Policy at the Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University.