President Donald Trump’s foreign policies are costing Americans their jobs at home and their security overseas, according to a recent expert analysis.
Although at the start of his second term Trump levied the highest tariffs America has seen since the 1930s, they have harmed the economy instead of helping it, reported the liberal-leaning think tank Center for American Progress.
“Far from the manufacturing sector ‘roaring back’ as Trump promised, the United States has lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs over the past year,” wrote Allison McManus and Dawn Le. “These actions have pushed the country’s closest trading partners to seek deals elsewhere, including with China: Canada, India, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union have all recently sought new agreements without the United States.”
In short, not only have Trump’s tariffs cost thousands of Americans their jobs in the immediate term, they are restructuring the global economy to America’s long-term disadvantage.
“Over time, each of these deals will result in markets that were once enjoyed by U.S. suppliers increasingly oriented away from them — and the rules of international engagement increasingly written by foreign governments,” McManus and Le added.
The Center for American Progress is not alone in calling out Trump’s tariffs. Writing for the conservative-leaning publication The Bulwark, Mona Charen observed that they are likely to hurt Trump in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Voters are rarely able to connect policy to outcomes, but they have done so in the case of tariffs,” Charen wrote. “Back in 2024, Americans were about equally divided on the question of trade, with some favoring higher tariffs and roughly similar numbers opting for lower tariffs. Experience has changed their views.”
Because Trump’s tariffs are increasingly unpopular, six of Trump’s fellow Republicans broke from their House colleagues and supported a Democratic measure to repeal his anti-Canada tariffs. The six legislators included Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Kevin Kiley of California, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Jeff Hurd of Colorado.
“I've heard clearly from small and large manufacturers as well as agricultural producers that these tariffs are hurting them,” Hurd told CNN’s Manu Raju at the time.
“Here are three cheers for the six House Republicans who voted with nearly all Democrats to repeal President Trump’s tariffs against Canada,” Merrill Matthews from the Texas state chair of Our Republican Legacy wrote for The Hill about the tariff opposition. “They bucked their party and their leadership, and especially Trump, to do the right thing.”
He added, “The shame isn’t that the six voted with Democrats, but that no other Republicans joined them.”
The Center for American Progress report did not only discuss Trump’s tariffs. McManus and Le also deconstructed the impact of Trump’s vast layoffs in foreign policy, many of which were spearheaded by the world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“Across the government, the Trump administration has removed, sidelined, or replaced independent civil servants, career diplomats, and seasoned national security professionals with individuals selected primarily for political loyalty,” the Center for American Progress wrote. “Cuts, purges, and resignations across the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and intelligence and defense agencies have hollowed out essential capabilities.” After adding that more than 300,000 federal employees have either been fired or left the government under Trump in the past year, the authors observed that in their place “the Trump administration has politicized the chain of command through its firings and interventions in promotions. And these trends will likely continue. Already, the Office of Personnel Management issued a February 2026 policy that strips federal employees of work protections.”
When this happens, there are national security consequences.
“They have also risked the political independence of U.S national security institutions that should make operational decisions based on the public interest, not out of fear of retribution from the president,” the Center for American Progress wrote. “Foreign adversaries are surely paying close attention when seasoned diplomats are replaced by loyalists with little experience, when expert analysis is ignored, and when politicization reaches intelligence assessments and military appointments.”
As with their tariff analysis, the Center for American Progress’ foreign policy personnel analysis has been echoed by non-liberal expert sources.
“Once lost, the legitimacy of a military that reflects and represents all Americans will be difficult to recover," Gen. Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) recently said to The New York Times. Similarly, referring to Trump’s War Secretary Pete Hegseth politicizing a recent foreign policy report, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling wrote for The Bulwark in January that "the very first sentence of Secretary Pete Hegseth's cover memo…. is retrospective and retributive, rather than prospective and mission-oriented.”
He concluded, “Strategy documents…. are not vehicles for settling political scores; they are meant to speak to a professional force tasked with executing national objectives under extreme risk."