Rubbish Check
ABC News Business (AP wire) · 11 October 2026
source“Trump sticks with tariffs even as US voters turn against them before the midterms”
R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates ABC/AP's claim that Trump is "sticking with tariffs" despite voters "turning against them" a 2/10 because the headline matches a verified AP-NORC poll showing disapproval rose from 58% to 64% while the article's own body supplies the economic context (who actually pays, the legal history) without burying it.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. This is close to the base fact: the headline's two load-bearing claims, Trump's refusal to budge and rising voter disapproval, are both directly supported by named polling data in the piece itself. The only iteration away from pure base fact is that the headline frames this as a simple political standoff, when the body does heavier lifting on why voters are souring (prices, who actually pays the tariff bill) that a reader skimming only the headline would miss.
What actually happened
A new AP-NORC poll found a majority of U.S. adults now say Trump has "gone too far" on tariffs, and approval of his trade handling has fallen. Despite this and a February Supreme Court setback on his original tariff authority, Trump has kept imposing duties via a different legal route (Section 301), with rates of 10-12.5% now hitting imports from 60 economies including the EU, Canada, Japan and India.
Key facts
- 64% of U.S. adults say Trump has "gone too far" on tariffs, up from 58% in January, per AP-NORC polling confirmed independently.
- Only about 3 in 10 adults approve of his trade negotiation handling, down from about 4 in 10 in March, per the same poll.
- Supreme Court struck down Trump's original 1977-law tariff authority in February; he pivoted to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
- New Section 301 duties range 10% to 12.5% across 60 economies, including the EU, India, Japan, Canada and Mexico.
- Studies cited from the New York Fed and Harvard found foreign exporters have largely not cut prices, meaning U.S. businesses and consumers absorb the tariff cost, not foreign exporters as Trump claims.
- Pre-trade-war tariff rates were low and roughly symmetric: U.S. averaged 1.47% on EU goods vs. the EU's 1.35% on U.S. goods (Bruegel); Canada's effective rate on U.S. goods was about 2.4% vs. the U.S.'s 5% on Canadian goods (Oxford Economics).
What to watch for
Watch whether the White House's "factory boom" counter-narrative (manufacturing jobs ticking up after last year's declines) holds through more data releases, since it's the administration's main rebuttal to the polling. Also watch the Canada tit-for-tat dispute and any further court challenges to Section 301, since both could force another pivot in the tariff legal strategy before November 3.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
