'Paying the price of his reckless policies': How 'Trump is making your life more expensive'

President Donald Trump in the White House on March 20, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Toro/Flickr)

US consumers are increasingly feeling the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and the head of the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that they are fueling inflation.

During an appearance on CNBC, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Phillip Swagel said that the president’s tariffs have pushed up inflation more than the agency initially anticipated, although he emphasized that their impact on inflation so far was “not by a lot, but by enough to show” in the numbers.

Swagel also said that the higher-than-expected inflation was a surprise because there are signs that the US economy has slowed significantly since January.

CNN on Tuesday published an analysis using numbers from the Yale Budget Lab estimating that Trump’s tariffs will cost US households an average of $2,300 extra per year, which is nearly three times as much as the $800 US households are projected to receive on average from new tax provisions contained in the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that passed earlier this year.

The combined distributional impacts of the Trump tariffs and the GOP tax law are also highly regressive. According to CNN‘s analysis, a household with annual earnings of $38,840 would be $2,560 worse off thanks to the tariffs and the tax law, while households earning $517,700 would be $8,180 better off.

The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that Trump’s tariffs aren’t just hurting Americans in the US, but those living abroad as well.

As explained by the Post, Americans living abroad have been unable to send mail to the US without paying hefty fines thanks to the chaos being caused by Trump’s tariffs. The reason for this, writes the paper, is that Trump earlier this year canceled a policy known as the de minimis exemption, effective August 29, that “allowed the tariff-free flow of goods under $800 into the United States.”

This has led not just to increased shipping costs for Americans living abroad, but has also resulted in foreign nations slowing or even outright halting shipments to the US because they are unsure about how to calculate the costs.

“Confusion about the rules have led to issues since the exemption was lifted on August 29,” the Post wrote. “At first, national postal services in more than 30 countries temporarily suspended sending some or most US-bound packages. Since then, restrictions have eased, and the Universal Postal Union deployed a tool this week to help operators calculate duties and resume services.”

Reacting to fresh revelations about the impact of the tariffs, many progressive Democrats hammered Trump for increasing the cost of living for working-class families.

“Under Donald Trump’s economy: coffee is up 26%, beef is up 14%, oranges are up 17%, bananas are up 6%, chicken is up 6%, chocolate chip cookies are up 5%, potato chips are up 4%, milk is up 4%,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “But average worker pay is only up 2%. Trumpflation is eating up your paycheck.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) added that “from school supplies to gas to groceries, Trump is making your life more expensive.”

“Poor and working people are paying the price of his reckless policies,” said the congresswoman.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, took to the Senate floor on Monday to single out a different Trump policy that he said was also raising prices for US consumers—namely, his attacks on green energy projects.

“This administration is shamelessly working to block one of our best defenses against rising energy bills: renewable energy,” Padilla said. “And I say so because renewable energy is absolutely affordable, renewable energy is abundant, and whether you want to admit it or not, renewable energy sources are our future.”

The senator also pointed to his home state of California as an example of what can happen when the government encourages the development of green energy projects.

“[California is] harnessing the power of solar and wind and hydroelectric power and nuclear, geothermal, even hydrogen power to our state,” he said. “And it’s exactly because of those investments that even in a year like 2024, just last year, when we experienced record heatwaves that we also saw record renewable energy generation, and we kept the lights on.”

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