President Donald Trump’s nonsensical “Liberation Day” tariffs amount to the largest tax hike on Americans since 1982, and will end up costing every American household thousands of dollars in an effort to solve global trade deficits that experts say are not a problem in the first place.
Multiple studies were released this week that show just how costly Trump’s tariffs will be for Americans.
A Tax Foundation report released Thursday found “The tariffs will reduce after-tax income by an average of 1.3% and amount to an average tax increase of nearly $1,300 per US household in 2025.”
The Tax Foundation—a technically nonpartisan think tank but which holds center-right views—said this is the largest tax increase on Americans since 1982, and will hit low-income households the hardest, as a $1,300 tax increase is a major blow to households that earn less money.
A Yale Budget Lab analysis published Thursday found the tariffs will be even more damaging to Americans. That analysis found the tariffs will raise prices by an average of 2.9%, which will cost the average household consumer $4,700 in 2024 pricing and lead to the loss of 740,000 jobs by the end of 2025.
The biggest price hikes will be for clothing, which the Budget Lab report says will increase by 64%. Food prices will also rise 2.6%, with fresh produce expected to cost 5.4% more thanks to the tariffs.
“Tariffs are a regressive tax, especially in the short-run. This means that tariffs burden households at the bottom of the income ladder more than those at the top as a share of income,” the Budget Lab wrote.
The tariffs are also likely to be devastating for autoworkers, with Axios reporting that United Auto Worker union members are expected to see profit-sharing checks they receive based on auto industry performance to fall by thousands of dollars. Already, automakers are halting production lines and laying off workers due to expected slowdowns in car purchasing because of Trump’s tariffs.
Related |People are already losing their jobs because of Trump’s tariffs
“For some automakers, with Stellantis being the most vulnerable at the current time, the effects of a prolonged tariff war could lead to operating losses that cause payouts to go to zero,” the Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group said in a report, adding that it could cost autoworkers as much as $5,000.
And data shows that Americans are really worried.
Consumer sentiment dropped 11% in Aprilaccording to the University of Michigan, which has been tracking that metric for decades. Consumer sentiment is now at the second-lowest level since the University of Michigan began tracking the metric in 1952—and is even lower than it was during the Great Recession in 2008, according to CNN.
With such dour news, it’s no wonder the stock market is plummetingwith the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 5% over the last month.
But Dear Leader Don is undeterred. In a Truth Social post on Friday, he assured the country that everything is going to plan.
“We are doing really well on our TARIFF POLICY. Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly,” he wrotesigning it with his initials.
Apparently, Trump’s plan was to supercharge inflation, send the country into a recessionand cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs.
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