
Voters like the UK-US reaching a trade deal – they just don't think Trump will follow it
Across the board, Americans and Britons agree that a free-trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom is a good idea, but far fewer are confident that President Donald Trump will abide by whatever deal he strikes.
On Thursday, Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the two countries agreed to increase access for U.S. agricultural exports while lowering some levies against the U.K., in the first deal since Trump launched his global trade war.
But polling from last month indicates that details of an agreement are less of a concern to adults in the U.S. or U.K. – instead, most people are wary of Trump's unpredictability.
While 78 percent of U.S. adults support a free-trade agreement in principle, only 44 percent believe Trump will abide by the terms of an agreement, a Politico and Public First poll conducted last month found.
Similarly, 73 percent of U.K. adults said they support the same kind of agreement, but less than 30 percent trust that Trump will keep his word.
A signature of Trump's public-facing leadership style is unpredictability. He's known to reverse course on policy approaches and throw people off with sudden sharp rhetoric.
Of the 2,000 U.S. adults surveyed between April 23 and 27, 50 percent said they believe the president's unpredictability is his biggest barrier when it comes to negotiations.
Those findings are consistent with other polls.
In a PBS/NPR/Marist survey, 62 percent of respondents said the president rushes into changes. In a New York Times /Siena College poll, 66 percent of respondents, including 47 percent of Republicans, said the word 'chaotic' described Trump's second term well.
Given the majority of U.K. adults opposed Trump's tariffs, they're likely to approve of the deal, which lifted a 25 percent tariff on steel exports and lowered the 27 percent tariff on automobiles to 10 percent for 100,000 vehicles.
But for U.S. adults, who are currently facing 145 percent tariffs on China, the U.S.'s second-largest trading partner, and general 10 percent tariffs for nearly every one of its trading partners, the U.S.–U.K. deal is less likely to land happily.
While nearly half of Americans believe the U.K. is the most important country to have as an ally, only 20 percent believe it is the most important to have a trade deal with.
Trump had only implemented the 10 percent tariff on the U.K., one of the U.S.'s closest allies. That baseline tariff will remain even after the deal.
Economists have largely agreed that while the U.S.–U.K. deal is good for their relationship, it's unlikely to make any major economic changes and it certainly won't serve as a blueprint for other trade deals.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's plan to begin 'phasing out' FEMA after hurricane season burdens states, experts warn
President Donald Trump 's plan to begin 'phasing out' the federal agency that responds to disasters after the 2025 hurricane season is likely to put more responsibilities on states to provide services following increasingly frequent and expensive climate disasters, experts said. 'We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,' Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office appearance with administration officials about preparations for summer wildfires. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly signaled their desire to overhaul, if not completely eliminate, the 46-year-old Federal Emergency Management Agency. While there has been bipartisan support for reforming the agency, experts say dismantling it completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding. 'It just causes more concern on how states should be planning for the future if the federal government's not going to be there for them,' said Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. Disaster response is already locally led and state-managed, but FEMA supports by coordinating resources from federal agencies, providing direct assistance programs for households and moving money to states for repairing public infrastructure. Trump said Tuesday he wants to 'give out less money,' and to 'give it out directly,' sidestepping FEMA programs. He said he did not know who would distribute the funds, saying they could come 'from the president's office' or DHS. 'I was left with the impression that he doesn't really understand the scale of what FEMA manages on a yearly basis with a budget of over $30 billion,' said Coen. Dismantling FEMA, or even changing how much of the costs it shares with states in the event of a major disaster declaration, would require action from Congress, including amending the 1988 Stafford Act, which outlines FEMA's roles and responsibilities and the cost share between the feds and the states. Declaring fewer major disasters or giving less federal support could put an untenable financial burden on states, said Sara McTarnaghan, principal research associate at the Urban Institute. 'Very few of them would have had enough funds set aside to anticipate the federal government stepping back from its historic role in disaster recovery for major events,' McTarnaghan said. A recent Urban Institute analysis found that between 2008-2024, quadrupling the economic threshold of when major disasters are declared would have shifted $41 billion in public assistance costs alone to state and local governments. 'I think the trade off for states and communities is going to be, do we accept a less full recovery or do states draw on other resources to meet these goals and needs, perhaps at the cost of investments in other kinds of social programs or functions of the state,' said McTarnaghan. Not all states will be able to generate much more revenue, she added. 'The confluence of states that have really high disaster exposure and states that have relatively limited fiscal capacity are overlapping in many ways,' she said. 'That's the case for a lot of states along the Gulf Coast that we're concerned about going into hurricane season but also the case for some Midwestern states that face issues with severe convective storms.' Trump dismissed the idea that states can't handle the bulk of disasters on their own. 'The governor should be able to handle it and frankly if they can't handle the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' he said. He suggested that some of the gaps could be filled by more collaboration among states. Noem said FEMA is building communication and mutual aid agreements among states 'to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet.' A national mutual-aid structure called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact already exists, but its operations are typically reimbursed by the federal government, said Coen. 'There's already robust communication between states. The confusion is what they can expect from the federal government.' Regarding the current hurricane season, which began June 1, Noem said FEMA 'stands prepared.' But there have already been changes to how the agency operates. It suspended its door-to-door canvassing program that helped enroll survivors for assistance. More than 2,000 FEMA staff, around one-third of the full-time workforce, have left or been fired since January. After severe weather this spring, some states waited as long as eight weeks for their disaster declaration requests, and several requests are still pending. Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation assistance since February, a typical add-on to individual and public assistance that helps states build back in more resilient ways. A FEMA review council established by Trump and co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will submit suggestions for reforms in the next few months, according to Noem. In its first meeting in May, Noem told the group of governors, emergency managers, and other officials primarily from Republican states that Trump is seeking drastic change. 'I don't want you to go into this thinking we're going to make a little tweak here,' she said. 'No, FEMA should no longer exist as it is.' ___


The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
Nintendo says sales of its Switch 2 hit a record within four days
Nintendo says it sold more than 3.5 million of its new Switch 2 gaming consoles within the first four days since its release — breaking a record for the company. In a Wednesday announcement, Nintendo said that this marks the 'highest global sales level' for any of hardware it's sold within that window of time. The Japanese gaming company officially launched the Switch 2 on June 5. Fans of the console's eight-year-old predecessor have been clamoring for an upgrade for years. Throngs of gamers stood in long lines outside stores for the Switch 2's release around the world last week — less than two months after a chaotic rush for preorders quickly sold out. Nintendo is counting on the Switch 2 to boost sagging sales. And in addition to a larger screen and new games, the console has added social features aimed at luring new players into online gaming. Nintendo has said it expects to sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles for the fiscal year through March 2026. The 3.5 million sold in the first four days includes the Nintendo Switch 2's Mario Kart World Bundle, as well as the Switch 2's Japanes e-language and multi-language systems sold in Japan. The Switch 2's baseline price of $449.99 is significantly higher than the original Switch's $299 price tag. While new bells and whistles may account for a sizeable portion of that hike, experts have previously noted that new tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are also a contributor. Evaluating the impact of these import taxes also led Nintendo to delay its April preorders by several weeks.

Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Fabian Picardo
We have reached this position as a unified British family determined to find a solution worthy of our people