Jesse Ferguson: One Year Later — How Trump Lost His Superpower
By Jesse Ferguson
Certain moments undercut the very rationale of a Presidency.
April 2, 2025 will be remembered as Trump’s moment.
That was “Liberation Day”—the day Trump launched his sweeping tariff agenda, promising to make America wealthy again through the power of his deal-making genius. For years, Trump maintained an extraordinary advantage on economic issues. Even when his overall approval ratings sagged, voters trusted him on the economy by double digits. It was his superpower, built over decades of branding from “The Apprentice” and reinforced throughout his first term and 2024 campaign. Even when people might not have liked him personally, they believed he knew how to create prosperity.
Then came the tariffs. And with them, the receipts.
One year later, Trump’s economic advantage has evaporated. His approval ratings on the economy are now underwater—net negative by more than 20 points, according to Navigator Research polling. Americans aren’t debating trade policy in the abstract anymore. They’re looking at their grocery bills, their credit card statements, their family budgets. And they’re angry.
In a recent ad from Opportunity Wisconsin, a woman named Deb from Mount Pleasant walks through her local grocery store tallying the cost of making her family’s famous lasagna. Tariffs have made it unaffordable.
This is what Trump’s tariffs look like in real life. Not in economic white papers or trade negotiations, but at the dinner table, in the everyday decisions families make about what they can and cannot afford.
The numbers tell the story. According to the Joint Economic Committee, the average American family will pay more than $2,500 in tariff costs in 2026—up from $1,744 last year. 81% of voters report that grocery prices have gone up. 73% say imported goods cost more. 72% have seen their electricity bills rise. The New York Federal Reserve found that consumers bear nearly 90% of the tariff burden—94% in the first eight months of 2025. This isn’t a Democratic talking point. It’s literally in the receipts.
And then came the Supreme Court ruling. In a decision that shocked the political establishment, the Court struck down the bulk of Trump’s tariff agenda as illegal—finding that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority. 62% of Americans agreed with the Court’s decision. The tariffs weren’t just unpopular. They were unlawful.
And Trump immediately moved to reenact them.
This creates an extraordinary opportunity for Democrats. But only if they get the message right.
First: Democrats must focus relentlessly on real costs, not theoretical trade policy. Don’t talk about supply chains or comparative advantage or global economic stability. Talk about the cost of Deb’s lasagna. Talk about the $2,500 coming out of family budgets. Talk about car repairs, construction materials, children’s toys, and electricity bills. Make it tangible. Make it personal. Make it impossible to ignore.
Second: leverage the Supreme Court ruling to demand that the money be returned—to consumers, not corporations. Polling shows that 72% of voters believe tariff refunds should go to the people who paid higher prices, not the businesses that paid the import taxes. This includes Trump voters by a 36-point margin. The framing is simple: Trump took money illegally. The Court said so. Now give it back to the families who couldn’t afford to lose it in the first place.
Third: tell real stories from real people. Stories connect with voters in ways statistics alone cannot. In fact, a Stanford professor has found that stories are 22x more memorable than facts.
The political impact is already visible. Democrats are winning in unlikely places—including flipping state legislative seats in Trump’s own backyard near Mar-a-Lago. Voters are connecting their economic pain directly to Trump’s policies.
For years, Trump’s opponents struggled to dent his economic credibility. But tariffs changed the equation. They made the consequences immediate and undeniable. Every trip to the grocery store became a reminder and every family budget became evidence.
Trump gave away his superpower. He revealed the betrayal.
But the window won’t stay open forever. Trump is a master of narrative rehabilitation. He’ll find scapegoats, change the subject, create new distractions. But right now—one year after Liberation Day—the receipts are real, the pain is fresh, and voters are looking for someone to fight for them. He’s made life harder and more expensive.
If we do it right, what was once his superpower will now be his kryptonite. And, more than that, people might actually start to think we give a shit about them in the process.
Jesse Ferguson is a longtime Democratic strategist having advised major candidates, causes and campaigns.
