Letter to the editor: Water is wet, and you pay Trump's tariffs

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 03.05.26

Americans eat the cost of Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs. In three recent studies, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY), the Congressional Budget Office and the Kiel Institute all found that YOU pay Trump’s tariffs. Kiel concluded, “The claim that foreign countries pay these tariffs is a myth. Americans are footing the bill.”

FRBNY reported that, in Trump’s first term, “Foreign exporters did not lower their prices at all, so the full incidence of the tariffs was borne by the U.S.” Trump’s refusal to learn from his own experience is one reason the Wall Street Journal called it “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”

Americans weren’t fooled. When Trump imposed tariffs again in April 2025, Gallup reported that 89% of Americans expected Trump’s tariffs would hike prices.

University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers predicted that Trump’s “dumbest trade war” would hurt YOU — “Monstrously destructive, incoherent, ill-informed tariffs based on fabrications, imagined wrongs, discredited theories and ignorance of decades of evidence will hurt working Americans more than anyone.”

On Feb. 20, 2026, two Trump appointees joined the 6-3 Supreme Court majority and ruled that Trump’s tariffs are unconstitutional because they tax Americans, not foreigners, and only Congress has the constitutional power to tax you.

Trump called his own appointees “disloyal” “unpatriotic” “fools” ““swayed by foreign interests” and “an embarrassment to their families.” Daring the court to stop him, he announced a new 10% global tariff and went to bed. The next morning, he arbitrarily raised it to 15%.

America’s affordability crisis continues because Trump ignores facts, history and the Constitution to indulge “imagined wrongs” and “discredited theories.” He cannot admit he’s wrong. That’s why, at his State of the Union speech, Trump repeated his lie that tariffs are “paid for by foreign countries.”

Trump attacks his own appointees and imposes arbitrary and destructive tariffs just to stroke his fragile ego. You and your family pay the price.

Kristine Garrity

Calabash