UPDATE (April 9, 2025, 2:34 p.m. ET): On Wednesday President Donald Trump shared on social media that he is raising U.S. tariff charges on China to 125%. For other countries, the president said in the post, he is issuing a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, during which time he will lower tariff charges to 10%.
Donald Trump is a habitual liar, but perhaps one of his biggest lies was his campaign promise that he’d bring down the cost of living on day one of his presidency. Instead, by slapping sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries around the world and launching a global trade war, President Trump has essentially placed a huge tax hike on Americans.
To be clear, a tariff on imported goods is a sales tax.
One of his biggest lies was that he’d bring down the cost of living on day one his presidency
Despite what the administration wants you to think, foreign governments don’t pay the tariffs for goods shipped to us — American companies that import those goods do. And those companies are likely to pass their higher costs onto American consumers. That means Americans will pay more for goods entering the United States from foreign countries, including food, clothing, home appliances and cars.
And it’s not just foreign goods that will cost Americans more money. Many of America’s most successful businesses produce their products abroad and ship them to the United States to be sold. For example, Nike products are primarily manufactured in Vietnam and Indonesia. Under the administration’s new tariff regime, products coming from each country will now be taxed at a whopping 46% and 32%, respectively.
When you apply this across the entire American economy, the results are devastating. The average American household is expected to pay nearly $5,000 more per year out of pocket as a consequence of these new tariffs. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are pushing new tax cuts for Elon Musk and Trump’s MAGA billionaire donors.
And when the average American household decides to cut back on spending because it can’t afford the “Trump tax,” small local businesses — your corner bakeries, family-owned restaurants, independent grocers or small apparel shops that are the backbone of our communities — will struggle to stay open.
Trump’s tariff policy has no clear purpose, no stated goal and no strategy. One day it’s a negotiating tactic, the next it’s a revenue scheme to rebuild American manufacturing. What we do know is it doesn’t work — American families pay more, we alienate our allies, and the American economy suffers.
One need only look at Trump’s first administration to know this is a farce. The tariffs he placed on imported steel in 2018 did little to resuscitate domestic steel production or create new manufacturing jobs.
This leads to a real risk of a global recession, and the world will rightly lay the responsibility fully at America’s feet.
If anything, this trade war will cost the United States jobs as countries respond with retaliatory tariffs. China has responded to Trump’s tariffs, with tariffs of its own on American imports. All this leads to a real risk of a global recession, and the world will rightly lay the responsibility fully at America’s feet.
Our strongest economic partners are suddenly looking elsewhere for partnership. Our European allies are poised to retaliate. China, Japan and South Korea — three historical adversaries — have begun talks to respond jointly against U.S. tariffs. In just one week, $10 trillion in global market value vanished. Trump has alienated the United States, and for what, to burn the retirement savings of Americans? If this is the art of the deal, the American people are getting the short end of the stick. If all this seems like too much power for a president to wield single-handedly, to be able to bring the economy down by fiat, that’s because it is. The Constitution is explicit that the power to tax and tariff falls squarely within the legislative branch. To enact his tax hike on the American people, President Trump is bypassing Congress by fabricating a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). But IEEPA has never been used to enact tariffs, and the supposed “threat” to use IEEPA doesn’t exist. The only national emergency this country faces today is Trump’s abuse of power and disregard for the law. But Congress can act: IEEPA has a safeguard. Any member of Congress can force a vote to terminate the president’s IEEPA authority. And that’s exactly what I’ve done. Will Republicans rubber-stamp the president’s reckless trade war — or stand up for their constituents? This week, I introduced a resolution that, if not acted upon within 15 days, will force the House to vote on ending the sham national emergency and halt Trump’s devastating taxes. This is a defining moment. Will Republicans rubber-stamp the president’s reckless trade war — or stand up for their constituents and protect them from higher costs and the greatest self-imposed economic downturn in modern history? The American people deserve answers and deserve relief. Democrats stand ready to provide it.
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat who represents New York's 5th Congressional District, is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 
