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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: A survey shows Americans in swing districts support President Donald J. Trump’s China tariffs and blame retailers for gouging prices.
👥 Who’s Involved: Donald J. Trump, American voters in 19 swing districts, retail CEOs, China.
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📍 Where & When: Polling was released on May 14.
💬 Key Quote: “Our data found that swing district voters are generally behind Trump in his efforts to correct decades of outsourcing through his recent tariffs and trust him far more than the retailers to stick up for American workers,” said the Protecting America Initiative.
⚠️ Impact: The broad support for President Trump’s tariffs in key swing states could affect the upcoming mid-term elections in 2026.
IN FULL:
A new poll reveals that a plurality of voters in several key swing districts support President Donald J. Trump‘s tariff policies. The survey, released May 14, examined the opinions of voters in 19 key battleground districts and found that more voters trust President Trump on defending American workers than they trust the CEOs of major retailers.
A massive 78 percent of those polled by the Protecting America Initiative (PAI) say that those retailers should absorb the price of tariffs themselves, and half say retailers have engaged in price gouging. A further 75 percent say retailers used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to raise their prices and saw record profits as a result.
Over 80 percent say they wish to see investigations into possible price gouging by corporations, and 78 percent say they would like to see penalties for companies that used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to raise prices.
“Our data found that swing district voters are generally behind Trump in his efforts to correct decades of outsourcing through his recent tariffs and trust him far more than the retailers to stick up for American workers,” PAI stated.
A total of 48 percent say they support President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, insisting that American retailers should be less dependent on the communist country and prioritise support for American manufacturing.
President Trump’s tariffs have already prompted billions of dollars in investment for American manufacturing from some of the largest companies in the world, such as Nvidia, which pledged to invest $500 billion in infrastructure and manufacturing of AI supercomputers in the U.S.
The tariffs have also contributed to a government surplus for the month of April, as the Trump administration reported over $16 billion in tariff receipts.
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticized white Afrikaner refugees for leaving the country, labeling their departure as “cowardly.”
👥 Who’s Involved: President Cyril Ramaphosa, Afrikaner refugees, U.S. President Donald J. Trump, Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel.
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📍 Where & When: South Africa; comments made at an agricultural convention following the arrival of 49 Afrikaner refugees in Washington, D.C., on May 13.
💬 Key Quote: “When you run away, you’re a coward, and that’s a real cowardly act, and I expect every South African to stay here, and we work together, and we solve our problems.” — President Cyril Ramaphosa.
⚠️ Impact: The remarks highlight tensions over South Africa’s racist land redistribution policies and the U.S. granting refugee status to Afrikaners.
IN FULL:
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has denounced white Afrikaner refugees who recently emigrated to the United States, describing their departure as an act of cowardice. His comments came after the first group of 49 Afrikaners, granted refugee status by the U.S., landed in Washington, D.C. Reports suggest up to 70,000 additional Afrikaners have applied for refugee status under the policy.
Speaking at a surprise appearance at an agricultural convention on Tuesday, Ramaphosa addressed the issue, stating that those leaving South Africa were unwilling to accept the government’s “transformation” policies. New “expropriation without compensation” laws aim to forcibly redistribute land and wealth along racial lines.
“They may be feeling excited they’ve left the country, they’ve got somebody like President Trump, but in the end, it’s a group of South Africans demonstrating that the changes and transformation that we are embarking upon here, they are not favourably disposed to it, and that’s why they are running away.”
He continued, “When you run away, you’re a coward, and that’s a real cowardly act. I expect every South African to stay here, and we work together, and we solve our problems.”
Afriforum, a group representing Afrikaners, pushed back against Ramaphosa’s statements. CEO Kallie Kriel issued a strong response on social media, accusing the South African government of fostering an unsafe environment for Afrikaners. The group often highlights threats and violence, including deadly violence, targeting white farmers in the country, even before the government’s moves to seize their land.
President Donald J. Trump has accused the South African government of presiding over a “genocide” against Afrikaners. Tensions between the governments of the two countries have been high in recent months over the mistreatment of white Afrikaner people, who have been in southern Africa since the 1600s—which is as long as some of its black African ethnic groups, with roots in tribes that migrated to the territory from further north, at least in some areas.
South Africa is a country where the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party, led by extremist Julius Malema regularly sing a song calling for the killing of Afrikaner farmers. Malema himself has not ruled out murdering white South Africans if his extremist party—already the fourth-largest in the South African legislature, out of 18 with representation there—ever comes to power.
“We’ve not called for the killing of white people, at least for now. I can’t guarantee the future,” he said in an interview in 2018.
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