The Trump administration announced new, double-digit tariffs on about 60 trading partners on Thursday, just as the temporary 10% duty that President Trump previously imposed on nearly all global imports was set to expire. The new levies apply to nations that account for 99% of all U.S. imports.
The administration has been scrambling to rebuild Trump’s signature trade wall ever since the Supreme Court ruled in February that he overstepped his authority by issuing sweeping tariffs under a law intended for national emergencies, without clear authorization from Congress.
Trump’s initial response to the 6-3 ruling was a stopgap of sorts: a short-term 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 that would last until July 24, buying his administration time to conduct investigations under Section 301 of the law that could justify longer-term tariffs if it found other countries had engaged in unfair trade practices. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on trading partners it says have failed to prohibit imports made with forced labor.
Reports indicate that new “excess manufacturing capacity” tariffs on imports from Europe, Mexico, China, Japan, India and other Asian countries could follow — in addition to the steep tariffs on Canadian imports and generic drugmakers that Trump announced earlier this week.
So what does this mean for you? While Trump may now have to rely on a patchwork of older trade laws to apply high duties after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the big picture is that his import taxes appear to be here to stay.
It’s been nearly 16 months since the president first declared “Liberation Day” from “foreign leaders [who] have stolen our jobs” and “foreign cheaters [who] have ransacked our factories.” Here are seven charts that show how his tariffs have affected the American economy.
Overall tariff rate
Since 1900 — and especially after World War II — the U.S. has led a global shift toward freer trade that has helped to lower prices. But Trump says this trend has gone too far and that his tariffs are designed to rebalance America’s relationship with the rest of the world.
When Trump took office in 2017, the weighted average tariff rate on goods imported to the U.S. was around 1.4%, according to the Tax Foundation. Trump roughly doubled it to 3% by the end of his first term in 2021. President Joe Biden lowered the rate to 2.4% before leaving office.
Then Trump returned to the White House and announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, including an additional 34% tax on Chinese imports and a 20% tax on EU imports. According to the Yale Budget Lab, these policies raised America’s average tariff rate to almost 23%, the highest level since 1909.
Country-specific rates have fluctuated over the last 16 months as the administration has cut deals or rescinded tariff threats. But the average U.S. tariff rate — an estimated 12.8% once Trump’s new Section 301 duties are factored in — is still the highest since World War II.
Inflation
Inflation measures how fast prices are rising throughout the economy. Tariffs generally make things more expensive, so changes in tariff rates can influence the overall inflation rate. A lot of other things also affect how much things cost, many of them totally outside of the president’s control, but economists have identified tariffs as one of the “inflationary pressures” impacting the economy.
Inflation remained relatively steady throughout the first year of Trump’s second term despite his tariffs, but they affected the economy in another way. Federal Reserve officials have repeatedly cited the tariffs as one reason behind making small, incremental reductions to the baseline interest rate — rather than the more aggressive cuts that Trump has repeatedly called for. Higher interest rates make it more expensive for individuals, companies and banks to borrow money, which can weigh on spending and investment.
Prices
If a tariff on a part, product or raw material is increased, that raises costs for the company importing it. Economists have found that importers typically pass much of that added cost on to U.S. consumers by raising prices rather than replacing the affected goods with American-made alternatives, which still tend to be more expensive.
Higher prices from tariffs don’t affect everyone equally, according to the Yale Budget Lab, which found that they hit people at the lower end of the income ladder the hardest. Why? Because they are the people who have to spend the largest share of their income on necessities, like food and clothing.
Overall, the Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump’s current tariffs will cost the average U.S. household an additional $1,100 per year. The goods that have seen the biggest price increases from Trump tariffs, according to a similar research group at Harvard, include carpets, clothing, coffee and home-repair materials.
Revenue
A tariff is an import tax paid by the company importing goods into the U.S. — not by the foreign country (or foreign business) exporting them. Like all taxes, tariffs generate revenue for the federal government.
“Tariffs are gonna make us rich as hell,” the president promised in January 2025.
How rich? Trump has touted tariff revenue in the trillions. At one point, Trump mused about sending $2,000 tariff refund checks to every American.
But the government’s own data tells a different story. While tariff revenue has indeed risen under Trump, it has remained below $200 billion annually: roughly $195 billion for fiscal year 2025 and about $163 billion during the first nine months of fiscal year 2026 (through June).
After the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s emergency-powers tariffs in February, his administration was forced to return about $81 billion of the revenue it had raked in so far this fiscal year. As a result, the government refunded about $26 billion more in tariffs than it collected in June.
Over 10 years, the Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump’s tariffs could raise roughly $1.9 trillion in total revenue if they’re left in place by the next presidential administration.
Manufacturing
Trump has long argued that universal tariffs will level the proverbial playing field by encouraging companies to retain American workers and expand U.S. manufacturing.
“They’re gonna bring our country’s businesses back that left us,” he promised in January 2025.
But since Trump returned to the White House that month, the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs has dropped by 75,000, while construction spending on manufacturing projects has fallen by 26%.
The data shows that the decline in manufacturing jobs began just before Trump’s tariffs. Economists also note that any lasting effort to shift manufacturing to the U.S. would take time and require significant investment. The Trump administration, for its part, has pointed to “new investments” in “tech-based manufacturing” as evidence that the American “manufacturing renaissance” has only just begun.
But so far, at least, the numbers don’t show that Trump’s tariffs have turned things around.
