Americans Have Low Tolerance for Economic Pain

Over the past few weeks, amid the turbulence caused by the Trump administration’s new tariffs, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly asked Americans to bear with them. If they endured a period of uncertainty, a little economic pain and maybe a temporary rise in prices, the message was, it would all be for the greater good, the prosperous future of the United States, which they would eventually also profit from.

A look at Trump’s approval ratings since the Liberation Day announcements and the market turbulence that followed suggests that many Americans aren’t ready to swallow that pill. After all, didn’t Trump promise to make them better off now, not in five years? As Democrats found out in the 2024 election, Americans have a very low tolerance for economic pain, even if it’s just temporary. Exit polls suggested that Kamala Harris lost the election due to the fact that many Americans felt worse off under Biden than they did before and Trump was the candidate promising to change that.

When Gallup recently asked Americans for how long they were willing to accept economic disruption in order for the U.S. to realize economic benefits from higher tariffs, the results suggested that the clock is ticking for the Trump administration to deliver results. While 31 percent of respondents said they weren’t willing to accept any economic trouble at all, 20 percent said they would accept a couple of months of turbulence and another 22 percent said they would endure disruptions for up to a year.

Interestingly, Republicans expressed far greater willingness to accept temporary economic discomfort in pursuit of long-term gains than Democrats did. Given the degree of polarization of the U.S. political landscape, this is more than likely owed to the fact that a Republican president is behind the policies in question.