President Trump stated in his 2024 presidential campaign that on his first day in office he would “immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” Yet after being in office for almost a month, prices have yet to fall. Instead, he is preparing the nation with his new tariff policy which will further disrupt the state of our economy.
As of last month, inflation has raised the cost of groceries, gasoline and rent; now with an already terrible inflation problem, tariffs are going to raise prices even more.
As if there weren’t any other more concerning problems that the United States is facing, like gun violence, our climate crisis, racial tension and inequality and the already-mentioned issues with high inflation — Trump has clearly thought that our trade policy is of the highest order to focus on.
More specifically, Trump’s biggest concern was about enacting reciprocal tariffs, meaning the fees that American companies faced when exporting goods to another country, should also apply for the imported goods from that same country.
Now, this sounds good in concept, but is actually very detrimental to our economy.
The president is expecting other countries to just agree to the tariffs. However, world trade was not built on the idea of country-to-country negotiations, but rather the World Trade Organization (WTO) kept countries’ supplies in check. The WTO worked to set proper fair tariffs for specific goods and Trump seemed to argue otherwise.
He described the U.S. as being a “victim of this structure,” as he cited trade deficits with China, Mexico and Germany. With his narrative of the U.S. “suffering” under these conditions, he now wants authorities to negotiate trade agreements to his liking — completely disregarding prior trade agreements with others.
And you may ask, well how will these tariffs affect me? It will affect nearly every part of your everyday life.
As we import a majority of products from other countries, including fruit, technology, oil and lumber, these new tariffs will increase our taxes.
An analysis by the Tax Foundation said Trump’s threats of establishing tariffs will cause an average tax increase of more than $800 per U.S. household in 2025. Not only will tax increase, but the cost of production of everyday items will too. Including some household technology favorites such as Apple products.
Though the tariffs can affect some prices, it might not directly hit the price tag but rather the employees who work for these companies. Affecting the U.S. economy and labor force as a whole. Businesses will have to consume a bigger cost, leaving them with less money for their employees as well as no money for hire.
These tariffs will leave the average American facing either low employment or lower income with higher costs of living. All of this because one man doesn’t want to be told no.
President Trump does not care about his own country’s citizens and it shows. He and his inner circle only care about themselves, but this will bite them in the butt when they realize that it will start to affect them too. They are not immune to the damage Trump inflicts on the country.
These tariffs are selfish in nature and will help no one other than Trump.
Categories: Opinion
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