In Tariffs Debate, Gen Z and Millennials Favor Lower Prices and More Choices

Younger Americans see globalization and free trade not as threats to their jobs, but assets to improve their standard of living and reduce the cost of goods.

Shortly after taking office in 2025, US President Donald Trump announced the most extensive set of tariffs since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in a bid to reinvigorate the domestic economy and prioritize the American workforce. One year on, reports show the economic experiment has failed to materialize as promised: American businesses and consumers have absorbed nearly 90 percent of 2025’s import taxes, amounting to an average $2,500 in tariff-related costs per household. Marred by high costs of living, inflation, and a tenuous job market, the current economic landscape has frustrated many Americans.

Data from the 2025 Chicago Council Survey, fielded July 18-30, finds the US public at large is at odds with the Trump administration’s economic policy. But when it comes to how the United States should pursue its economic policies, a generational divide emerges that pits younger Americans' preference for open markets against older generations' instinct toward protectionism. Millennials and Generation Z are broadly supportive of globalization and international trade, prioritizing low prices and more choices over protecting American manufacturing, and do not view tariffs as an effective means to achieve the foreign policy goals of the United States. Such views have opened the door for political candidates offering alternative economic visions like 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani, whose message of affordability and economic relief heavily won him the vote of young Americans and the New York City mayoral race. 

Key Findings

• Slim majorities of Millennials and Generation Z think US trade policy should have no trade restrictions to enable American consumers to have the most choices and the lowest prices (54% and 50%, respectively). 
• Millennials and Generation Z are the least likely of all age groups to believe placing tariffs on other countries’ goods is an effective approach to foreign policy (13% and 11%, respectively). 
• Three-quarters of Millennials and Generation Z believe globalization is mostly good for the United States (75% and 76%, respectively).  
• More than two-thirds of Millennials and Generation Z think trade between the United States and its top trading partners strengthens US national security—with the exception of Saudi Arabia and China, which are viewed more critically. 

Millennials and Generation Z Want Lower Prices and More Choices

Millennials and Generation Z tend to think US trade policy should have no restrictions to give American consumers the most choices and the lowest prices (54% Millennials, 50% Generation Z).  While most older Americans say they want a protectionist trade policy that places restrictions on imported foreign goods to protect American jobs (55-61%), data suggest Americans of all ages are growing weary of trade protectionism.

Americans across all generational cohorts have grown less likely to favor restricting foreign imports to protect employment since last year. This decline is most prominent among the Silent Generation (16 percentage point drop) and Millennials (15 percentage point drop). 

For many Americans, tariffs have also lost their luster, likely in response to rising household costs following Trump’s Liberation Day announcement and, more recently, the war in Iran. No more than half of Americans across generational cohorts consider placing tariffs against other countries’ goods an effective approach to achieve US foreign policy goals. In fact, Millennials and Generation Z are least likely to consider tariffs a very effective approach to US foreign policy (13% and 11%, respectively) and most likely to think they are very ineffective (30% and 26%, respectively). Their bleak view of tariffs as a foreign policy approach could be because young Americans often bear a disproportionate share of the economic burden from tariffs due to their consumption patterns and financial standing. 

Still, confidence in tariffs has declined considerably among Americans of all ages. In 2024, two-thirds or more of the Silent Generation, Boomers, and Generation X felt placing tariffs against other countries’ goods was an effective way to achieve US foreign policy goals. That level has since fallen to just half. 

Young Americans See Globalization and Trade as Beneficial to the United States

Despite the turbulent shift in the United States’ role in the global economy since Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, Americans remain steadfast in their support for globalization. Overall, Americans tend to see increased economic connections as mostly good for the United States (74%). There is further consensus across generations that globalization benefits the United States, with three-quarters of Millennials and Generation Z in agreement.  

Majorities of young Americans also agree with their elders that international trade benefits both the United States and other countries equally (62% Millennials, 66% Generation Z). However, older Americans are more likely to think other countries receive more benefits from trade than the United States (22% Silent, 18% Boomer, 19% Generation X vs. 14% Millennial, 12% Generation Z). These findings suggest older Americans are more sympathetic than younger Americans to the Trump administration’s argument that other countries have disproportionately benefitted from—or even taken advantage of—the United States’ openness to international trade. 

With the exception of Saudi Arabia and China, more than two-thirds of Americans across all generational cohorts think the United States’ trade relationships bolster US national security. Millennials and Generation Z also see trade between the United States and top trading partners—like Canada, Mexico, and the European Union—as strengthening US national security. While fewer Americans view the US-Saudi trade partnership as strengthening US national security, slim majorities across age groups still consider it a value add. 

Consensus breaks down when it comes to China: Millennials and Generation Z are divided on whether trade with China strengthens US national security or weakens it, while majorities of older generations believe the US-China trade relationship weakens it (60% Silent, 56% Boomer). In general, young Americans view China more warmly than older generations (see appendix table 1). 

Conclusion 

Millennials and Generation Z have come of age in an interconnected and interdependent world, and their views on trade reflect that reality. In their eyes, globalization and free trade are not threats to their jobs, but assets to improve their standards of living and reduce the cost of goods. Skepticism of the Trump administration’s use of tariffs as a foreign policy tool among Millennials and Generation Z is not simply a reaction to rising prices, but an expression of a worldview that sees economic cooperation as a source of strength, not vulnerability.