By: Daily Morph | Published February 19, 2025
When Donald Trump campaigned for office, he made a bold promise to lower prices for American consumers, assuring them that his economic policies would put more money in their pockets. But like many of his grandiose pledges, the reality has been starkly different. Instead of lowering costs, Trump has imposed tariffs on key trade partners like China, Mexico, and Canada, triggering a chain reaction that has driven prices higher for everyday Americans. Whether through willful ignorance or calculated deception, his policies have done the opposite of what he promised.
The Tariff Shell Game
At its core, a tariff is a tax on imported goods, which is then passed down the supply chain. The logic is simple: when foreign goods become more expensive, American companies that rely on them—such as Walmart, Target, and countless others—have no choice but to raise their prices to compensate. These price hikes are then shouldered by consumers at checkout.
While Trump repeatedly assured voters that tariffs would force foreign countries to pay, the truth is that businesses and consumers have been footing the bill. Tariffs don’t come out of the pockets of Chinese, Mexican, or Canadian exporters. Instead, they become an added cost for American importers—who, in turn, push that cost onto their customers. The result? The very people Trump promised to protect are now paying more for everything from groceries to electronics to automobiles.
Who Really Benefits?
It would be one thing if Trump genuinely misunderstood how tariffs work. But given his background in business, it’s far more likely that he knew exactly what he was doing. By raising the costs of imported goods, he effectively helped his allies in corporate America justify their own price hikes. Why settle for competitive pricing when you can use tariffs as an excuse to inflate profits even further?
American manufacturers—many of whom lobbied for these tariffs—now find themselves conveniently on equal footing with their foreign competitors. Instead of competing by cutting costs or innovating, they simply charge more, knowing that tariffs have eliminated the price advantage of international goods. Trump’s rhetoric about “helping American workers” was little more than a smokescreen for protecting the profits of the very elites he claimed to oppose.
What Promises Will Be Broken Next?
With each passing policy reversal, it’s becoming clear that Trump’s pledges were never about helping the average American. He didn’t lower prices—he raised them. He didn’t punish foreign governments—he made life more expensive for his own citizens. And as tax season approaches, it raises a critical question: what other promises will be broken?
Could Trump’s next move involve yet another tax burden, conveniently rebranded as a “patriotic duty”? Will income taxes, instead of being abolished as he once hinted, be leveraged in new ways to extract even more from working Americans while corporate profits continue to soar?
One thing is certain: when Trump makes a promise, it’s best to read the fine print. Because chances are, someone—somewhere—is getting rich at your expense.