Messaging Guidance:

Pushing Back on Trump’s Liberation Day Messaging

 

Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced the largest tax hike in American history. On his so-called “Liberation Day,” Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on all imports and significantly higher rates for dozens of our closest trading partners. The result is a stock market in free fall and skyrocketing prices on the horizon for nearly everything Americans buy. 

Public support for Trump’s tariffs is underwater as Americans begin to realize that they will pay the costs of Trump’s trade war. Below is guidance for how to effectively push back on the White House’s arguments in support of Trump’s reckless “Liberation Day.”

Topline Messaging:

  • Donald Trump ran for president on a promise to lower prices for American families. He’s breaking that promise by implementing the largest tax hike in American history. His disastrous plan is throwing our economy into chaos, raising prices for American consumers, hurting U.S. workers, and threatening a recession. 

  • This chaos is not an effective strategy. Radical uncertainty and global isolation are the enemy of investment, innovation, prosperity, and security. We can't afford this kind of recklessness in the White House.

Countering Trump Administration Narratives: 

  • FICTION: Tariffs will stop the United States from being dependent on the rest of the world and create an America that produces everything we need right here at home.

    • FACT: No country can produce all that it wants or needs. Many have tried; all have failed. We rely on other countries for countless goods that we simply cannot produce here – meaning Trump’s tariffs will increase prices on everyday goods on many products the American people rely on.

      • 90% of oats used for food in the United States, including in cereal, are grown in Canada.

      • The United States imports 60% of its fresh fruits and 38% of its vegetables from our partners overseas.

      • The U.S. imports nearly all of its coffee, 80% of which comes from Latin American countries like Brazil and Columbia.

      • Dozens of critical and rare earth minerals that are needed to manufacture computers, smartphones, and other electronic devices are simply not accessible in the United States.

  • FICTION: America has been ripped off for nearly a century. We’re finally fighting back and getting a fair deal for the American people.

    • FACT: The only one ripping off Americans is the Trump Administration. The President’s solution to “save” the American people is the largest tax increase in history, which amounts to at least $3,000 per household. 

  • FICTION: This will be short-term pain.

    • FACT: This isn't true. But even if it were, Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and small businesses can’t afford to “wait it out.” The poorest Americans will lose roughly 4% of their household income – and it doesn’t stop there. Just ask Senator Thom Tillis, who warned the Administration that Trump’s tariffs will do “irreparable damage” to the farmers in North Carolina living “one crop away from bankruptcy.”

Arguments to Avoid:

  • Don’t get into the weeds on the calculations. We recommend against focusing on how the Administration calculated tariff rates or whether or not these are truly reciprocal. We know it’s nonsense. But that doesn’t matter to the American people, who are focused on how this will affect their ability to put food on the table. 

  • Don’t talk about the legality of or process around the tariffs. We should absolutely be concerned about the balance of power across our government and congressional oversight. However, institutional and process arguments are rarely winners with the American people. Instead of scolding the Administration for circumventing Congress to impose tariffs unilaterally, ground your arguments in the direct consequences for the American people. 

  • Don’t defend norms that put us on the side of foreign leaders and big business. Trump’s use of tariffs may be a political tactic aimed at pressuring foreign governments and large businesses, but it’s often framed as a tough negotiating strategy on behalf of everyday Americans. That framing resonates because people want to see their leaders standing up for them — not for entrenched elites.

Published: April 2025