President Donald Trump’s higher import tariffs went into effect Thursday as some sectors of the economy show visible signs of strain. Real Clear Politics President Tom Bevan told Newsmax that the Republicans’ success in the 2026 midterms depends on the state of the economy as it remains “the No. 1 issue on the minds of all Americans.”

“But at the end of the day, it’s going to be Look, where is the economy three months before the election or two months before the election? How do people feel about it?’ And obviously today we’re going through another what feels like Liberation Day all over again with the tariffs kicking in,” Bevan said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”

Bevan called out some of the initial media reports that predicted the U.S. economy was going to collapse much earlier in the year, saying, “All these stories of doom and gloom. Those simply did not materialize after the initial tariffs were announced back in April. And so, we’ll see where inflation is, where the economy is.”

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