The $2,000 Trump tax
Big Thought, Small Step, Deep Breath — for March 5, 2025
BIG THOUGHT
The $2,000 Trump tax
Welcome to the Trump economy. No matter how much President Trump tried to hype the economy last night, the numbers don’t lie. Your stock portfolio and/or retirement account is shriveling, business leaders are panicking, and today we are reporting that the new Trump tariffs could cost the average American family $2,000 this year.
To put that sum in context, it is enough money to buy three pairs of Trump’s official victory sneakers, plus 100 dozen eggs.
Welcome to the Resistance, everyone who didn’t think that Trump is dangerous but did think he would be good for business.
After a month of gamesboyship, the Trump tariffs finally went into effect on Monday: new 25 percent levies on imports from Canada and Mexico; plus another 10 percent on Chinese imports, on top of the 10 percent imposed in February. All three countries — America’s biggest trading partners — are retaliating with tariffs on U.S. exports. As predicted, the stock market’s nosedive intensified as investors sold off stocks, anticipating a further slowdown in consumer spending.
The tariffs imposed during the first Trump administration were relatively inconsequential, but this time they’re likely to have a much bigger impact: the world economy is more fragile, the tariffs themselves are broader in scope, and there is nobody within the administration to put the brakes on. There is less that lawmakers could do even if they were motivated to push back, since Trump has invoked emergency powers — supposedly to address the threat of fentanyl trafficking — to conduct his chaotic and manic trade war.
Today’s Big Thought is about how this affects you — and, frankly, how it affects Trump supporters (current ones, at least) whom you might know and talk to.
A tariff is a tax on imports. Despite what Trump thinks, that tax gets paid not by China or Mexico or Canada, but by whoever imports goods into the country. And those importers face a choice — they can keep prices the same and make less money once they sell those goods in the U.S., or they can pass the costs along to consumers.
What do you think they tend to do?
Ding ding ding! They pass it on. So the tariff very quickly becomes a tax — on you.
Since tariffs are collected on everything from finished goods and food to raw materials like lumber and consumables like oil, they can affect almost everything you buy. That means higher prices — inflation, as economists call it. Remember it?
You’re going to pay more for stuff. And how much more will this Trump tax cost you?
The Budget Lab at Yale has just crunched the numbers, and what they found is damning. American households can expect to lose an average of $2,002 in real income this year, assuming that America’s trading partners-turned-adversaries retaliate in full, which is likely. So that is a $2,000 tax hike on every American household.
Every single Democratic Party official needs to be chanting this phrase nonstop from now on: the $2,000 Trump tax. Forward this item to your most Trump-loving friends and relatives. (Hi, newcomers! Welcome to The Ink. Hope you have $2,000 saved!)
For more, watch Rep. Ro Khanna on the Trump economy — and Dems’ wobbliness:
SMALL STEP
Give ’em an earful
The United States is a representative democracy, which means you’ve got a right — and a duty — to let your representatives know what you think. Congressional staffers have reported that since the inauguration they’ve been inundated with calls from constituents. How inundated? We’re talking 1,600 calls per minute to the Senate, up from 40, according to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office. Callers have been pushing Democrats to use every tool at their disposal to push back against the Trump-Musk agenda — and they’ve been showing up to fight a whole lot more often lately. And Republicans have (understandably) been getting such overwhelming criticism that they’re starting to duck town halls.
So if you feel like giving somebody an earful, 5 Calls is a good place to start. You’ll find contact information for your senators and representatives and scripts for calling about the issues that matter most. Get on the horn!
DEEP BREATH
Doo stuf mediocrelee
Over at milk and cookies, Ayushi Thakkar focuses on living well REALISTICALLY — which is more important than ever if you happen to be living in a stressful and demanding time. Anyone? In that spirit, consider Thakkar’s advice on building “low-energy habits,” such as “keeping an ‘everything is fine’ outfit,” “drinking [anything] out of a wine glass for no reason,” and — our favorite — “doing things at 70% effort”:
i used to believe that if i wasn’t doing something perfectly, it wasn’t worth doing at all. if i couldn’t cook a proper meal, why cook at all? if i didn’t have the time to do a full skincare routine, why bother washing my face? but perfection is exhausting, and nothing ever gets done when you’re constantly waiting to do it perfectly. so now, i let myself do things at 70%. not great, not terrible—just done. i’ll wipe the counter without deep-cleaning the entire kitchen. i’ll go for a ten-minute walk instead of an hour-long workout. i’ll send the text even if it’s not worded perfectly. and life still moves forward.
A programming note: We’re going Live!
We hope you can join us Thursday, March 6, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’re back with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio. And mark your calendars for next Thursday, March 13, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we’ll be speaking with writer and activist Rebecca Solnit!
To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you’ll get an alert that we’re live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.
Senator Bernie Sanders, response.
At this particular moment in history
Despair is not an Option
Giving Up in Not Aceeptable
and None of Us have the Privelege
of hiding under the covers
the stakes are just too high
let us never forget
real change only occurs
when ordinary people stand up
by the millions against oppression and injustice
and fight back
that is the history of the founding of our nation
He hurled hate directly at all of us last night when he repeatedly sneered at the democrats in the Chamber and they need to find a way to find away to respond to that because they represent all who are OPPOSED to him (even if you don’t like them). I hate never felt hate directed at me by a Republican president before—it’s a Trump signature. And he is signaling to MAGA that they need to hate and sneer at us as well. It’s terrifying and I think every organization in opposition needs let him know it’s a precursor to civil unrest, see e.g., Charlottesville.