Crucial Week for Trump: New Tariffs and Elections Will Test His Momentum

 

Crucial Week for Trump: New Tariffs and Elections Will Test His Momentum

 

Down-ballot races in Florida and Wisconsin are seen as a referendum on the White House, while the president’s to-be-announced reciprocal tariff plan is increasingly worrying investors and consumers.

 

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Reporting from Washington

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/us/politics/trump-florida-wisconsin-tariffs.html

March 31, 2025

 

President Trump’s political momentum will face a major test this week as Democrats try to turn various down-ballot races into a referendum on the White House, and Mr. Trump’s long-promised tariffs risk rattling allies and consumers alike.

 

A State Supreme Court election in Wisconsin on Tuesday is seen as an indicator of support for Mr. Trump, particularly after Elon Musk and groups he funds spent more than $20 million to bolster Mr. Trump’s preferred candidate. White House officials have also been increasingly concerned with the unusually competitive race on Tuesday for a deep-red House seat in Florida left vacant after Representative Michael Waltz stepped down to serve as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser.

 

The White House is hoping victories in those races will tighten Mr. Trump’s grip on the Republican Party as his team seeks to overcome the backlash from its inadvertent sharing of military plans on a commercial app with a journalist.

 

The Florida election is critical for Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the House as they try to pass the president’s agenda. The outcome of the Wisconsin race, in a battleground state that Mr. Trump narrowly won last year, could be a reflection of voters’ views on the president’s gutting of the federal work force, his crackdown on illegal immigration and his moves to purge diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

 

“It’s a big race,” Mr. Trump said of the Wisconsin judicial contest on Monday while signing executive orders in the Oval Office. “Wisconsin is a big state politically, and the Supreme Court has a lot to do with elections in Wisconsin.”

 

Mr. Trump is also expected to reveal the details of his reciprocal tariff plan on Wednesday. He has labeled it “Liberation Day,” saying the nation will finally break free of past trade relationships that he argues have cheated the United States. Investors, however, are growing more concerned that the tariffs could fuel inflation and slow consumer spending, potentially driving up economic anxieties among voters.

 

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, brushed off those concerns on Monday.

 

“The president will be announcing a tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades,” Ms. Leavitt said. “He’s doing this in the best interest of the American worker. The president has always said that the stock market is a snapshot for a moment in time and he’s doing what’s best for Main Street, and Wall Street will work out just fine.”

 

Mr. Trump also said he was not worried about the potential for rising consumer prices. Despite the confidence projected by the White House, the S&P 500 ended March with its steepest monthly decline in more than two years, driven by uncertainty about the scope of the president’s tariffs. Investors will also be focused on the scheduled release of a monthly report on the health of the U.S. jobs market on Friday.

 

“This country is going to be more successful than it ever was,” Mr. Trump said on Sunday. “It’s going to boom. You’re going to have Boomtown, U.S.A.”

 

Mr. Trump has also set expectations for his administration’s ability to reach a deal to keep TikTok running in the United States. The app, whose ownership by a Chinese company has raised concerns that Beijing could use it to gain access to sensitive user data, must be sold by Saturday or face a ban under a law Congress passed last year. Mr. Trump extended the deadline for a sale in January and on Monday indicated he could do so again if an agreement is not reached, even though it is unclear that he has the power to override the timetables set out by the law.

 

Mr. Trump has also suggested that he might relax upcoming tariffs on China in exchange for the country’s support of a deal. He has acknowledged that keeping TikTok accessible may be critical to building support among young voters.

 

“I’d like to see TikTok remain alive,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. “Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok.”

 

“TikTok is very interesting and a lot of people want to buy it,” he added. “There’ll be a deal with TikTok.”

 

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs