Always does. They forgot the organizing principle of Bill Clinton's campaign: It's the economy, stupid!
A lot of people liked Trump's brash and swaggering personality but not to the point that they stopped caring about their pocketbook.
is it possible you were mislead?
The American consumer might be the most resilient thing on the planet. Blows my mind but there you have it.
They were basically just a national sales tax.
Nope, because it was also a tax on inputs. Worse, supply chains that crossed the border multiple times would be taxed multiple times. The chaos also made it impossible to plan.