Donald Trump once claimed his tariffs would be like a lavish dinner paid for by someone else. The line went that other countries would foot the bill, while American consumers could sit back and enjoy the benefits. But recent research has cooled that appetite for trade bravado. It turned out that the cost of Trump’s tariffs is falling squarely on the shoulders of American businesses and consumers.
Harvard analysts tracked prices across a wide range of goods—from carpets to coffee—and found that import prices increased by 4%, while US-made products rose by 2%. Items that are difficult or impossible to produce domestically, like America’s beloved morning coffee, were especially affected. A routine coffee purchase now carries an understated extra cost—the tariff burden that was seldom part of the public narrative.
The White House maintains that Americans need a transition period, after which the cost burden will shift to foreign exporters. Meanwhile, overseas suppliers are scrambling to find new ways to bring their goods into the US to avoid tariffs. But for now, domestic companies are absorbing most of the financial impact and passing part of it along to consumers.
Many Americans are left puzzled by the noticeable increase in coffee prices compared to last year.
Meanwhile, US-China trade volume continues to decline. The total value of bilateral trade dropped 15.6% in the first nine months of 2025. For now, the American economy has yet to shake off the impacts of what Trump has called protective trade. In the end, it is the average shopper who is footing the bill.
