Trump's New Tariffs, China Reacts To Tariff Ruling, State Of The Union Poll

Summary

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NPR Up First – Episode Summary

Date: February 23, 2026
Episode: "Trump's New Tariffs, China Reacts To Tariff Ruling, State Of The Union Poll"
Hosts: Steve Inskeep, Leila Fadel

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on three top stories:

1. President Trump's sudden imposition of new global tariffs after a Supreme Court ruling struck down his previous trade measures.
2. China's official and business reactions to the legal whiplash over US tariffs.
3. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll showing most Americans view the State of the Union as "not strong" ahead of President Trump's upcoming address.

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Key Segment 1: Trump’s New Tariffs & Legal Fallout

[00:15 – 05:56]

Background

• The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s prior tariffs, ruling he overstepped legal boundaries.
• Trump quickly invoked a different authority to announce a new global 10% tariff—then increased it to 15% the next day.
• Legal experts argue these new tariffs may also be unlawful and could face further lawsuits.

Political Implications

• Mara Liasson (NPR):
  • Trump’s power is now limited: "These new sections are much more cumbersome than the sweeping powers he had claimed..." ([03:04])
  • Some tariffs require Congressional action or lengthy investigations.
  • The sudden changes force Congressional Republicans to openly back or oppose tariffs, putting them on the record for an unpopular policy.
  • GOP relief at the Supreme Court's ruling was short-lived:

    "That optimism among Republicans lasted about five minutes because Trump immediately said that not only was he going to put more tariffs on under a different authority, but that means he has to ask Congress to vote..." ([03:44])

  • Democrats seize the issue, calling for tariff revenues to be returned to states, and frame Trump's trade policy as both costly and illegal:
    • Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:

      "Farmers and small business owners, companies as well as... the American consumer, have been hurt being forced to pay thousands of dollars more per year in additional expense when the affordability crisis right now is already crushing everyday Americans..." ([04:48])

Notable Quote

• Mara Liasson on Democratic strategy:

  "Trump made you pay more and it wasn’t even legal. That’s likely to be the Democrats’ message going into the midterms." ([05:21])

State of the Union Preview

• Liasson wonders if Trump will use his address to attack Supreme Court justices sitting directly before him, and notes he’s struggled to focus on affordability issues.

• "The big question for me is how much time Trump will spend... excoriating the Supreme Court justices... Or how much time he will be talking about affordability?... he has struggled to do consistently for months." ([05:32])

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Key Segment 2: China’s Reaction to Tariff Turmoil

[06:02 – 09:33]

Official Response

• Jennifer Pak (NPR Shanghai):
  • China’s Commerce Ministry is "making a full assessment" and urging the US to lift unilateral tariffs.
  • Chinese businesses (ex: James Gao, shoe manufacturer) are cautiously optimistic but unclear about day-to-day impact:
    • James Gao:

      "I don't really know what this change exactly means because... it all comes down to how it’s enforced and what’s next. Like when he loads his shoes on a ship today, will it be the same tariff rate when it arrives in the U.S.?" ([06:58])

Coping With Uncertainty

• Years of shifting US policy since 2018 have made unpredictability routine.
• Businesses hedge by moving production (e.g., manufacturing in Vietnam for lower US tariffs) but retain high-end operations in China:
  • James Gao:

    "China is the best place for innovation," especially for specialized, high-tech shoes. ([08:00])

Broader Economic Impact

• China has sought to diversify trade partners beyond the US, with partial success.
• Sluggish domestic demand means China needs stabilization in US relations; other countries now push back on Chinese exports as well.

Prospects for Trump’s China Trip

• The Supreme Court ruling may "weaken Trump’s hand" as he heads to meet Xi Jinping, diminishing his tariff leverage.
• Both sides are hurt by the ongoing trade conflict:

  • "When the U.S. and China fight, both sides hurt." ([09:30])

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Key Segment 3: State of the Union Poll Results

[09:43 – 13:20]

Main Findings

• Domenico Montanaro (NPR Senior Political Editor & Correspondent):
  • 57% say the State of the Union is “not strong”—up 4 points from the previous year. ([10:08])
  • Party Divide:
    • 80% of Democrats and almost 70% of Independents say "not strong."
    • 75% of Republicans say it is strong.
  • Educational & Gender Splits:
    • 69% with college degrees say "not strong"; those without degrees are split 50/50.
    • 63% of women (12 points higher than men) say "not strong." ([10:31])
  • Economic Sentiment:
    • 60% say the country is worse off than a year ago.
    • 55% see Trump’s direction as a "change for the worse"—his worst reading in NPR polling. ([11:04])
  • Threats to Democracy:
    • 80%+ across parties say there is a serious threat to democracy—though definitions diverge:
      • Democrats fear backsliding on liberal norms.
      • Republicans worry about election security.
    • Only one-third think the system of checks and balances is working—Republicans more likely to say it is.

      • "...Democrats and independents overwhelmingly say that it’s not working. But a majority of Republicans do see it working well." ([12:20])

The 2026 Fall Elections Backdrop

• Views on Trump are "baked in," making it hard for the president to sway public opinion in the State of the Union.
• Cost of living remains Americans’ top concern, but Trump has not focused on it in messaging.

Notable Quote

• Montanaro:

  "He’s facing a very skeptical public in a midterm election year, and those are generally not very good for the party in power." ([13:10])

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Notable Moment: Team USA’s Olympic Triumph

[13:26 – 14:06]

• The US men’s hockey team won Olympic gold for the first time since 1980, beating Canada in overtime.
• US women’s team also claims gold; 12 total US golds and 33 medals overall—a major success, but Norway leads the medal table.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• Mara Liasson on GOP predicament:

  "Republicans on Capitol Hill will have to show their loyalty to Trump by voting to impose the tariffs, taking even more ownership of an unpopular policy that a majority of voters believe have driven their costs up." ([03:44])

• Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:

  "We also haven’t seen a return of manufacturing jobs to the United States of America, which is what the Trump administration promised would take place." ([05:16])

• Jennifer Pak (on Chinese business uncertainty):

  "This past year has just been a rollercoaster ride with tariffs." ([07:10])

• Domenico Montanaro (on poll results):

  "Views of Trump are very ‘baked in,’ in his words. And, you know, that makes Trump’s challenge at the State of the Union all the more difficult." ([12:39])

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Takeaways

• President Trump’s volatile tariff policy continues to generate legal, political, and diplomatic turmoil—just as he gears up for a pivotal State of the Union and midterm elections.
• Both US and Chinese stakeholders are navigating a landscape of uncertainty, often hedging against Washington’s unpredictable decisions.
• The public is uneasy: majorities say the country is going in the wrong direction, express grave concerns about democracy, and see little progress on affordability. Trump faces entrenched polarization as he tries to address the nation and rally support for November.
• Amid the headlines, the success of Team USA at the Winter Olympics provided a rare moment of national unity and pride.

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Transcript

[A]

What did you just say?

[B]

I said I was born ready.

[A]

You need to say that with more

[B]

like, more force, conviction, as if I really believe I was born ready.

[A]

Go for it.

[B]

I was born ready. It's true. All right.

[A]

I'm ready. Republicans had a moment of hope for the midterm elections. The Supreme Court got rid of President Trump's unpopular tariffs.

[B]

Then Trump imposed new tariffs. What's the political cost of a tax on imports? Which we have analysis from Mara Liasson.

[A]

I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadel. And this is up first from NPR News. The president's new global tariff rate is far lower than the taxes he raised, then re raised, then lowered and raised on imports from China. Trump lost leverage just as he was announcing a trip to meet China's president. What does that mean for his trade war?

[B]

And heading into President Trump's national address tomorrow night, a new poll finds most Americans say the state of the Union is not strong. We'll break down the numbers and what they mean in a midterm election year. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

[C]

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Our goal at MITI is to make sure that all women have access to really expert care starting around 35 and 40, making sure that they get access to all the things that can help them thrive as they're growing older.

[C]

MIDI Health committed to helping women in midlife with perimenopause and menopause care, accessible via telehealth visits at. Join MIDI.com it took President Trump almost

[B]

no time to resume his signature economic policy, raising and lowering tariffs on an almost daily basis.

[A]

The Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs on Friday, saying he violated the Constitution and the law that he cited. Trump immediately claimed the authority of a different law to impose a global tariff of 10%. And then one day later, he said, let's make that 15. The lawyer who won the case before the Supreme Court tells NPR those tariffs are also illegal and his clients may sue again.

[B]

NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson is covering the political costs. Good morning, Mara.

[D]

Good morning.

[B]

Okay, so there are already questions about whether this new move by the president is legal. Can the president raise tariffs on his own?

[D]

He says he can. He says he's now going to put, as you said, global tariffs of 15% under a different section of the trade act. But these new sections are much more cumbersome than the sweeping powers he had claimed that the Supreme Court struck down. For instance, some of these new tariffs will only last 150 days before Congress has to weigh in. Other ones could be permanent, but they require months of investigations. And if he's going to China in April to meet Xi Jinping, he just lost a big piece of his leverage to because he won't be able to issue tariffs by proclamation for any reason he wants whatsoever.

[B]

Okay, so that's the international impact that you mentioned there. Let's go domestic now. How much does it matter that we're in a midterms year?

[D]

It matters a lot. The politics are very complicated. At first glance, the ruling was seen as a godsend for Republicans. They were not going to have to defend Trump's unpopular tariffs. Maybe prices would go down. But that optimism among Republicans lasted about five minutes because Trump immediately said that not only was he going to put more tariffs on under a different authority, but that means he has to ask Congress to vote on the tariffs. And Republicans on Capitol Hill will have to show their loyalty to Trump by voting to impose the tariffs, taking even more ownership of an unpopular policy that a majority of voters believe have driven their costs up. Now, Trump might back off. He might not have the votes. We just saw six House Republicans vote with Democrats against the tariffs on Canada.

[B]

How are Democrats responding?

[D]

Well, several Democratic governors, including Illinois's J.B. pritzker and California's Gavin Newsom, demanded that the White House pay back tariff revenue to their states. The administration pushed back on that, saying that has to work its way through the courts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked about the impact of tariffs on Fox News Sunday. Yesterday. Here's what he said.

[E]

The trade deficit has not been meaningfully closed. That's number one point. Number two is that we know farmers and small business owners, companies as well as, perhaps most importantly, the American consumer, have been hurt being forced to pay thousands of dollars more per year in additional expense when the affordability crisis right now is already crushing everyday Americans, middle class Americans and working class Americans. And we also haven't seen a return of manufacturing jobs to the United States of America, which is what the Trump administration promised would take place.

[D]

So the short translation Trump made you pay more and it wasn't even legal. That's likely to be the Democrats message going into the midterms.

[B]

Okay, before I let you go, Mara, the State of the Union is on Tuesday.

[D]

What will you be listen auspicious the state of the Unions are any president's biggest opportunities to speak to the public. And the big question for me is how much time Trump will spend in his State of the Union address excoriating the Supreme Court justices who will be sitting right in front of him. Will he repeat his insults, call them lap dogs and fools, or how much time he will be talking about affordability? That's something he has struggled to do consistently for months.

[B]

NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Thank you, Mara.

[D]

You're welcome.

[B]

Many of America's trading partners are trying to make sense of the state of

[A]

US Tariffs, and that would include China, which has been a major target of the president's tariffs.

[B]

NPR's China correspondent Jennifer Pak is in Shanghai and joins me now. Good morning, Jennifer.

[F]

Good morning.

[B]

So what's been the reaction in China to the Supreme Court's ruling and Trump's new 15% tariffs?

[F]

So this morning, China's Ministry of Commerce issued a statement saying it's making a full assessment of the ruling. It's also urged Washington to lift unilateral tariffs on its trading partners. Now that's the official view on the ground. Chinese business owners who deal with the US Are cautiously optimistic, I'd say, about this development. I spoke to a shoe manufacturer based in southern China in Guangdong province. James Gao owns this company called Shoebot, and he says Friday's news sounds positive.

[G]

But from my side, I don't really know what this change exactly means because

[F]

he says it all comes down to how it's enforced and what's next. Like when he loads his shoes on a ship today, will it be the same tariff rate when it arrives in the U.S. you know, this past year has just been a rollercoaster ride with tariffs.

[B]

Wow. I mean, obviously a real concern that it could change just on that journey. At one point last year, the tariffs and counter tariffs from both sides were over 100%. How are Chinese businesses you've been speaking to coping with the decision making from Washington?

[F]

Well, they've been living with uncertainty for quite a while since Trump's first term when he launched A trade war with China in 2018. So Chinese manufacturers that are still standing, they've built this uncertainty into their business model by looking for ways to hedge the tariffs. So take that shoe manufacturer you heard from earlier, James Gao. He's expanded his manufacturing to Vietnam, where the US Tariff rate is lower there than the ones placed on China. So right now, most of his athletic shoes destined for the US Are made in Vietnam. But that hasn't meant that he cuts China out of his operations.

[G]

China is the best place for innovation,

[F]

he says, for more specialized shoes. He still uses his factory in China because they have of the high end machinery and technical know how here. China is still the place to manufacture high quality stuff. And on the government level, Beijing has been trying to diversify its trading partners and they've been doing it for some years now. In other words, they're trying to be less reliant on trade with the US and they've had some success.

[B]

Okay, so now President Trump is about to head to China in a few weeks. How might this Supreme Court ruling influence the triple?

[F]

Before the Supreme Court's decision, both the US And China put a brief pause on some trade restrictions and the higher tariffs on each other's exports. Now, President Trump has used tariffs against China as a threat to lower the trade deficit, to stop intellectual property theft, to stop the flow of chemicals used to make street fentanyl. So in theory, this decision on Friday by the Supreme Court might weaken Trump's hand. However, China also has its own issues. Its domestic economy is sluggish. Consumption has been weak, which is why some Chinese manufacturers have been selling more to other countries. And now some of those countries, they're starting to push back on cheap Chinese exports, saying that those exports are destroying their local industries. So China really needs the relationship with the US to stabilize. And like the Chinese Commerce Ministry has said, when the U.S. and China fight, both sides hurt.

[B]

That's NPR's Jennifer Pack in Shanghai. Thank you so much for your reporting.

[F]

Thanks for having me.

[B]

The state of the Union is not strong.

[A]

That's according to the majority of respondents in the latest NPR PBS News Marist Poll out today. President Trump is set to give his update on the state of the Union tomorrow night.

[B]

To tell us more about the findings of this survey is NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, good morning.

[G]

Hey, great to be with you.

[B]

What did the survey say about the state of the Union?

[G]

Well, I mean, 57% say that it is not strong. That's up 4 points from last year. That includes 8 in 10 Democrats and nearly 7 in 10 independents who say that it's not strong. Three quarters of Republicans, though, say that it is strong. Maybe no surprise, given that Trump is in office and they've backed him on almost everything else.

[B]

Other notable divides, other than political party?

[G]

Yeah, I mean, there are really big splits by education and gender. I mean, of those with college degrees, 69% say that the State of the Union is not strong. Those without degrees, though, are split 50, 50 women, 63% say that the State of the Union is not strong. That's 12 points higher than men. Both of those divides have been really pronounced throughout this decade with Trump on the political scene and how people view him. And here on the eve of Trump's report about the country, it really gives a good view of how some Americans are seeing things.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

What else jumped out at you?

[G]

Yeah, we asked about whether people thought the country was better off or worse off than a year ago, just after Trump came into office. 60% say that the country is worse off. Now, 55% see the direction that Trump is moving the country as, quote, change for the worse. And that, by the way, is the highest number that Trump has faced in either of his terms in our poll.

[B]

Interesting. I also thought it was interesting in this survey that we asked people whether they think there's a threat to democracy. What did we find?

[G]

Yeah, here's one place where majorities across parties agreed, you know, saying that there is a serious threat to democracy. You don't get almost 8 in 10 people in polling agreeing on much, but that's what we found here. 9 in 10 Democrats, 8 in 10 independents, 61% of Republicans all say that there's a serious threat. Now, as we know from other surveys and conversations we've had with voters, what they see as those threats in many cases is very different. You know, Democrats see the country backsliding on liberal democracy. Republicans have concerns that elections aren't secure, something Trump has pushed to explain away his 2020 loss, despite evidence to the contrary. You know, we also asked whether the system of checks and balances in the country is working. Two thirds say it is. Not. Here again, though, with Trump in office, Democrats and independents overwhelmingly say that it's not working. But a majority of Republicans do see it working well. And that makes some sense, because Republicans in Congress, as we've seen, haven't put many checks on Trump during his first year as he's tried to centralize power.

[B]

Many of these splits feel like what we've seen all along when it comes to Trump.

[G]

Yeah. I asked our pollster about this, and he said that views of Trump are very quote, baked in, in his words. And, you know, that makes Trump's challenge at the State of the Union all the more difficult. He's facing a very skeptical public in a midterm election year, and those are generally not very good for the party in power. Any and whatever he says as it relates to midterm messaging is gonna set the backdrop for the next several months until those November elections. You know, people have been saying that prices, the cost of living are their top concern and don't think that the Trump administration is focused on it enough. You know, Trump has mostly sidestepped it and focused on other things like immigration, foreign affairs. But how does he try to reset that, if at all tomorrow night?

[B]

That's NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro. Thank you, Domenico.

[G]

You're welcome.

[B]

This news probably polls well. The US ended the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy with a triumph. They won the gold in men's hockey.

[A]

They beat their longtime rivals from Canada two to one in overtime, the first time Americans won gold in Olympic hockey since 1980.

[B]

The American Women's team won hockey gold, too. Those are just two of the 12 gold medals won by Team USA in the Games.

[A]

If you're keeping track, the United States won 33 medals overall, making it the best Winter Games showing in decades for the United States, although that was not good enough to beat out the Norwegians, who won 41 medals.

[B]

And that's up first for Monday, February 23rd. I'm Layla Falden.

[A]

And I'm Steve Inskeep. For tomorrow's top three stories, follow up first on your podcast app and you get coverage of the news you need to start your day delivered directly to you when you wake up.

[B]

Today's episode of up first was edited by Christian Dove, Calomer Vincent Nee Dana Farrington, Mohamed Del Bardisi and H.J. mai. It was produced by Ziad Buch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hyness. And our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

[D]

Foreign.

[C]

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