Most Americans Support Trump’s Use of Tariff Threats Against Colombia in Deportation of Illegals, Poll Finds

Most Americans support President Donald Trump’s recent use of tariff threats to pressure Colombia to accept American deportation flights, a poll by Scott Rasmussen’s Napolitan Institute finds.

In late January, Trump successfully persuaded Colombian President Gustavo Petro to accept repatriation flights of Colombian illegal immigrants in the U.S. by threatening 50% tariffs after Petro initially refused to accept the flights.

This week, Trump followed a similar heavy-handed approach when dealing with Mexico and Canada, using tariff threats to persuade both neighboring countries to station 10,000 troops on the border to prevent the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Rasmussen’s latest poll shows that a majority of Americans support this tactical use of tariffs as statecraft.

The survey of 1,000 Americans showed that 57% of respondents said the president was “right to use America’s economic power in this manner” in the Colombia case, while 33% were opposed, and 10% replied they were “not sure.”

Americans’ general view of the strategy is much the same, as 59% of Americans said it was appropriate “generally speaking.”

However, Americans are split on the Colombia issue by gender and political affiliation.

According to the Napolitan Institute, a vast majority of men (70%) support Trump’s strong-arm use of tariff threats against Colombia, while women are more evenly split on the issue, with 46% saying Trump was right to make the threats, 40% saying he was not, and 14% were undecided.

Although the measures received support from a majority of respondents, respondents were divided roughly along party lines, with 87% of self-identifying Republicans calling the measures appropriate, compared with just 24% of Democrats and 58% of independents.

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