White House digs in on tariffs as voters fume over prices

President Donald Trump's White House is not blinking on tariffs. Speaking Tuesday at the B20 summit in Washington, Jim Goyer, director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, cast the duties as a way to rebuild American manufacturing, secure supply chains and protect national security. And he made clear there's more coming: the administration aims to keep up the pace for the rest of Trump's term.

The timing is awkward. The summit, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, came one week after voters handed Republicans a midterm drubbing over rising prices. Roughly two-thirds of voters said Trump's policies contributed to inflation, per the CNBC Voter Poll, and nearly nine in 10 called the cost of living a major or crucial factor in their vote. A Reuters/Ipsos poll out Tuesday found 62% of Americans back repealing the tariffs, with just 21% approving of how Trump is handling the cost of living.

Gary Cohn, Trump's former chief economic advisor and now IBM's vice chairman, didn't mince words onstage. Tariffs, he said, are a consumption tax on the U.S. consumer, driving prices up and making shoppers think twice. He pushed back on the White House's revenue argument by pointing to the other side of the ledger: every American who pays the tariff through something they bought.

Cohn did offer a path out of the standoff. He floated a bipartisan trade deal in which Trump and the incoming Democratic Congress make protections against China and unfair trade practices permanent while rolling back tariffs on Canada, leaving less for future presidents to unwind. Kevin Brady, the former Republican congressman who helped lead the B20 summit, put the broader shift bluntly: the old trading system isn't coming back.

The numbers aren't helping the White House. Consumer prices climbed 0.4% in October, beating economists' expectations, while annual inflation hit 3.7% in September, well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. The Iran war has jacked up energy costs, and housing and healthcare keep squeezing households. A New York Fed study estimated about 26% of tariff increases get passed through to consumer prices, with some effects taking nine to 12 months to move through supply chains.

Businesses are already adapting. UPS CEO Carol Tomé said customers are shifting production and sourcing closer to home, telling a panel moderated by CNBC's Morgan Brennan that supply chains are diversifying and regionalizing. UPS is opening an air hub in the Philippines costing more than $80 million in October to expand its Asian network across more than 1,100 global trade lanes. Dow executive chairman Jim Fitterling defended the tariffs despite the price hit, calling them necessary against unfair competition. Democrats plan to challenge the duties when they take Congress in January, though Trump's veto power and broad trade authority make an override a tall order.