(The Center Square) – Most Americans say the U.S. economy is getting worse, according to new polling released Monday.
The latest Gallup poll found no change in Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy over the past month. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index remained steady at -20. That indicates relatively few Americans rating existing economic conditions as excellent or good (28%). The majority (63%) continue to say the economy is getting worse, according to the poll.
“Americans’ views about the economy have been moderately negative all year,” according to the poll. “These ratings extend a negative stretch for the index that’s been in place since 2021 and contrast with Trump’s first term, when confidence was consistently positive until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.”
The economy in Trump’s second term has been marked by the president’s swift action to overhaul global trade through tariffs.
Trump used a 1977 law that doesn’t mention tariffs to reorder global trade through tariffs to try to give U.S. businesses an advantage in the world market. Using tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump hit nearly every nation with import duties of at least 10%. Some countries face higher rates, up to 50%.
Those tariffs have pushed up prices, but so far, many importers are eating the costs of the higher prices.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon recently told investors that the company could be forced to raise prices further due to tariff pressure.
“With regard to our U.S. pricing decisions, given tariff related cost pressures, we’re doing what we said we would do,” he said. “We’re keeping our prices as low as we can for as long as we can.”
Walmart isn’t alone. Home Depot initially told Americans that it would hold the line on prices. However, in August, the home-improvement retailer with more than 2,300 stores across North America said prices will increase in some categories due to significantly higher tariffs than it expected in May.
Trump’s new tariffs raised $80.3 billion in revenue between January 2025 and July 2025 before accounting for income and payroll tax offsets, according to an analysis of federal data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s tariffs could generate $4 trillion in revenue over the next decade, but they would raise consumer prices and reduce the purchasing power of U.S. families.
Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families, and pay down the national debt.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods that the importer pays, not the producer. The importer pays the cost of the duties directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a federal agency.
This is the price for fixing the long-term health of the United States economy. Trump’s tariffs are balancing the world economic scale that has been eroding American wealth for decades because of sloppy, non-business-like governmental policies. Borrowing money and increasing the national debt in the manner of the democrat economic philosophies has left us in a vulnerable economic mess. This kind of moronic political maneuvering would bankrupt anyone playing “Monopoly” in 15 seconds.
Trump’s moves are the short-term price that has to be paid if we are to survive as an economic world power. Otherwise, we will become a third world loser that can’t survive without having hyper-inflation and eventual bankruptcy. It is just simple common sense logic. The country needs to stop complaining and do what is necessary to fix this mess.
“A tariff is a tax on imported goods that the importer pays, not the producer.”
Just an example of importers making Trillions of $$$$ on imported crude oil. The importer buys oil from the supplier at X dollars and during the importing trip the oil is bought and sold between importers making money at each sale transaction. By the time the oil gets to the consumer it now sold to the consumer at XXXX dollars and the tariffs are added to the price charged to the consumer.
What President Trump has done by charging tariffs is to make the producers to manufacture their products inside the U.S. and there will be no tariffs, no importers fees, the creation of U.S. jobs.
Tariffs will eventually lower the cost of the products. Instead of importing our beef and pork from foreign countries, we can again raise our own. We the U.S. let other countries rob and take advantage of us for decades. This will take time to lower the prices that we pay for all products.
Exactly, no point in whining about short term issues. We are talking about fixing this mess for the future.
Prob is too many voters don’t see beyond their own NOSE..
It is getting very expensive in Washington State. But it is all by design. A little to do with tariffs and a LOT to do with crushing taxes and State sanctioned climate change fraud.