President Donald Trump once said famously that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters, and that may be true.

However, it’s becoming crystal clear that the same may not be true when it comes to implementing massive tariffs that many prominent economists and financial leaders say will break the world’s economy and send the US into a recession or depression.

To get an idea of how much the stock market hates the notion of the universal tariffs, on Wednesday, April 9, when Trump announced a 90-day pause on many tariffs with the exception of China, the stock market shot up like a rocket.  Before that, the markets had cratered day after day and the pressure was growing and growing on Trump and Congress to do something.  Many had jumped off the Trump train by that point, and apparently, the harsh reaction to the plan has even caused the president to put the brakes on the tariff train, at least for now.

Last week, there were enough US senators to approve a resolution that would stop Trump’s tariff policy – which places large tariffs on just about every country in the world with the exceptions of Russia, North Korea and Belarus. Though that resolution will not pass in the House of Representatives, it was the first real break by the Senate from Trump since he was elected.

 The tariff plan is meant to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States by making goods from other countries too expensive to purchase in America.  Trump says Americans will have to endure some pain – such as big losses in their 401k – however, Trump has been saying he remains optimistic that, on the other side of all this pain, America will one day enter a golden age.

But the tariff policy hasn’t gone over well with most Americans, financial experts and, interestingly, lately, even some MAGA Republicans.

Trump’s partner in governing – Elon Musk – is one MAGA mogul who’s 100 percent against the move. The “world’s smartest man” called Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navaro a “moron” and said he was “dumber than a sack of bricks.” Musk then later apologized to all bricks for associating them with Navaro. Musk also said, among other things, that there should be no tariffs between America and Europe.

Musk is not alone in his hatred of the tariffs.

While some of Trump’s team are highly supportive of the plan, an increasing number of  Republican and conservative leaders and right-wing influencers say the president’s tariff plan is a bridge too far.

When North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis was told North Carolina farmers would have to endure a period of pain for a while, he responded hotly.

“We need to talk about farmers who are one crop away from bankruptcy,” the senator said. “They don’t have time, so we’ve got to be crisp on this implementation. Otherwise, we could do damage that’s irreparable to farmers.”

Dave Portnoy, a conservative podcaster, business owner, and strong Trump supporter who runs Barstool Sports, ranted, “I’m down seven million bucks and stocks and crypto. If this is Biden, and he did some sort of scheme like this …and he absolutely tanked the stock market, he would be getting crucified.  And in front of the line would be Trump.”

Right-wing Trump supporter Ben Shapiro said Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were “probably unconstitutional.”

Shapiro added: “Trump’s reciprocal tariffs imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on Americans will be the largest tax increase since the Revenue Act of 1968, one of the biggest tax increases on American consumers in the history of America, and it’s going to cost American consumers.  It will cost American producers who use inputs from other countries.  The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted immediately more than 1,000 points; the S&P 500 plummeted more than 3 percent, while the NASDAQ plummeted almost 4 1/2 percent.  There are real world implications for this sort of stuff. Trade wars are in fact not good and not easy to win, particularly if you don’t actually have a plan. It is predicated on a bad idea of how international trade works – a fundamental misunderstanding of trade deficits. Trade deficits are an accounting procedure. Trade deficits have pretty much nothing to do with the health of an economy. I can name you a period in American history where there was a fairly large surplus in America’s balance of trade – the entire Great Depression.”

A host of economists around the world have almost universally assailed the tariff plans that the Economist magazine called “bonkers.”

While the policy is causing havoc, Trump’s April 9 temporary pause of his grand plan to bring manufacturing back to America is being very well received by investors, many people on Main Street and countries around the world.

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