Trump's Tariffs 'Forever' Plan Leaves US Consumers Holding Bill
President Donald Trump's tariff announcements no longer cause market gyrations like they did in 2025. However, their impact on American consumers is becoming increasingly clear, just as economic sentiment is souring ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
Tariffs covering nearly all U.S. imports are now firmly based on existing U.S. trade law and beyond the reach of the Supreme Court's review. Trump has said he envisions enacting many more of these so-called trade law tariffs.
As a trade economist, Kent Jones believes that the longer these import taxes remain in place, the more consumers will bear their burden. The new tariffs are designed to be permanent, stacking additional costs onto older levies.
The cost squeeze on U.S. consumers is clear: researchers have found an impact on prices. The Dallas Federal Reserve estimated that the Fed's preferred inflation measure would have risen without tariffs at an annual rate of 2.3% in March, instead of its actual 3.2%. Meanwhile, an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab concluded that consumers are paying anywhere from half to the entire cost of the levies through higher prices.
Trump has long viewed tariffs as tools for negotiating leverage and recently declared that U.S. tariffs 'aren't high enough.' He also deflected criticism of their impact on consumer prices by claiming erroneously that foreigners pay for them.