Dem
47
GOP
53
Late last week, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced that his company would have to raise prices, in response to Donald Trump's tariffs. Over the weekend, Trump got on his completely-irrelevant-after-January-20-2029 social media platform and blew his top:
Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, "EAT THE TARIFFS," and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!
Pretty presumptuous from someone who has never, ever, ever eaten an expense when he could possibly pass it on to someone or something else (like, say, the federal government).
In any case, one side holds all the cards here, and it's not the side with the fake spray tan. Walmart is very popular with Republicans (people actually poll for this, and they are 69 points above water with Republican voters). It's also very central to the economic life of many red municipalities and counties. A lot of that is because of low prices, which they maintain thanks to extremely low profit margins. McMillon simply has to pass the costs of tariffs on to customers, and he has to make clear where the increases are coming from. Anything else would be business malpractice.
Meanwhile, Trump has virtually no leverage over Walmart. Certainly, his usual toolkit will not be very useful. Walmart is not planning any mergers, so there's no wielding the Department of Justice against them. The company does not use undocumented labor, so no ICE raids against their stores or warehouses. Obviously, they don't get government grants, so Trump can't arbitrarily cancel those, Harvard-style.
Walmart is plenty conservative, but first and foremost, it's a business. And in serving its business interests, it will end up doing more to communicate "the Trump tariffs are taking money out of your pocket, and here is exactly how much" than 10 years' worth of Democratic commercials, speeches, and appearances on Meet the Press. This is another reason (see above) to think that Trump will quietly drop his trade war, and will retreat as rapidly as he can. (Z)