Americans from all over the country are still coming to terms with President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports, though many are acknowledging that they’re willing to pay more for American products.
Fox News Digital spoke to everyday Americans in Washington, D.C., New York City, Knoxville, Tennessee, and other major U.S. cities to find out if they’d be willing to pay more for American products or go with less to allow for Trump’s tariffs to reset America’s trade deals throughout the world. Many of those interviewed said yes.
“Oh, 100%. I don’t like to spend money and buy goods outside the USA because I’m also then supporting child labor and forced labor conditions that are unethical, normally,” Lyndsey from Birmingham, Michigan, said when asked if she’d spend more on products made in America.
Americans speak to Fox News Digital about how willing they’d be to pay more for products that are made in America. (Insets: Fox News Digital | Background: Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty)
Other Americans gave similar answers to the question.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Joe from Boston said. “You know, I mean, I’m pro-conservative, so anything that’s going to build the economy here in America, yes, I would.”
Zharko in Michigan told Fox, “Absolutely, because we make the best. We just, nobody realized that. And it’s about time.”
Ray in New York City said he’d pay more for American-made, so long as “it’s a higher quality than I can get somewhere else.”
Mark, who was visiting D.C., told Fox, “Absolutely. We’ve talked about it a lot, and I think it’s a temporary pain for good pay-off in the future, I think.”
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A Fox News graphic that depicts how countries have responded to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. (Fox News / MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
However, D.C. resident Tamara said she liked the idea in principle, but disagreed with it because Trump has been promoting it.
“I am pro-America. I do like made-in-American products. But considering today’s climate and where it’s coming from, I’m not really a fan,” she said.
Bill, a Republican voter visiting D.C., disagreed with the idea of paying more for American-made, telling Fox, “I think that’s not a good policy. I mean, if America’s going to compete with the rest of the world, it’s got to compete on prices. I’m all for free markets.”
Fox also asked these people what they thought of Trump’s recent statement that kids may have to deal with having less toys because of his reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump told reporters last weekend, “All I’m saying is that a young lady, a 10-year-old girl, 9-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl, doesn’t need 37 dolls.”
He also told NBC News anchor Kristen Welker in a recent interview, “I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs — that’s 11 years old — needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.”
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The interview subjects were more mixed in their answers to this question. Knoxville resident Jay said, “I would agree. I think today’s society has a sense of entitlement, and I think that’s where he’s really going with that. Like, instead of having multiple things that you really don’t need, you can do with less, and we can teach our kids to do with less maybe.”
Lyndsey from Birmingham agreed, saying, “I 100% agree with that. I think we need to be a less consumeristic style society and more of an organic, back-to-nature society where we’re buying back from our farmers, we’re getting everything locally sourced, and we’re kind of building back a better community of just keeping things, the goods and services within a small community of places.”
Sergio, a Mexican man living in Tennessee, agreed with Trump’s statements, but turned them around on the president, saying, “It’s true, we don’t need so many, but at the same time, Trump doesn’t need so many millions, and he has a lot of millions. So why he doesn’t give up some of those millions?”
Tamara in D.C. didn’t like Trump’s point.
“It’s funny that he’s the party of freedom, but he wants to tell us how we are to spend for our children, and I just don’t think that’s right,” she said.
Bill in D.C. criticized Trump’s doll example, stating, “It’s not going to just affect dolls. It’s going to affect prices of all kinds. So, I don’t think that that’s probably the best analogy.”
