No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, this administration is costing you money. Exactly how much depends on how long the current tariffs remain in effect, as well as your family’s spending pattern, but barring a change, tariffs will cost the average American household over $2,300 a year (Yale Budget Lab, May, 25, 2025). And that’s not the abstract theoretical money that rides the waves of the stock market, it’s the actual, real dollars you fork over for back-to-school clothes and Christmas gifts. Perhaps sticker shock hasn’t set in yet, but once retailers exhaust their pre-tariff inventories this summer, all of us are going to feel how high the price tag on Donald Trump’s trade war actually is. I wonder if we’ll think it’s worth it.

Laurie Rhoades

Montague