How Trump’s tariffs and other policies are ‘raising hell,’ according to business owners

American businesses are fed up with President Donald Trump’s major

In the New England region, a clothing store re-tagged items to be sold during the summer to cover the cost of tariffs. A car dealership in upstate New York said its inventory has been depleted by Americans rushing to get ahead of tariffs. And an electronics manufacturer said President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy changes are “raising hell with businesses.” These accounts — and the picture they paint about the US economy — come from various surveys of businesses released this week from the Federal Reserve, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&P Global. Taken together, they show that businesses of all sizes and across industries are slogging through a fog of uncertainty stemming from Trump’s policies, most notably his on-again, off-again tariffs. The term “tariffs” was mentioned 80 times in the Fed’s “Beige Book” report, a periodic collection of survey responses from businesses across the country, while “uncertainty” was mentioned 76 times. Businesses and consumers have been on edge since the beginning of the year, but the latest surveys show that Trump’s policies are clearly reverberating throughout the economy, affecting inflation, hiring and many companies’ finances — all while consumers try to figure out whether to spend now or wait until later. Investors and economic policymakers pore over surveys like these, which can help gauge economic conditions sooner than official government data can. Tariffs have long been expected to jack up prices, and even though much of Trump’s trade policy is in question by the courts, many businesses say their input costs have gone up. Some have already raised prices for consumers.