Trump’s tariffs won’t hit all Americans equally. Here’s who gets hit the hardest

Lower-income Americans are likely to feel the brunt of the unprecedented tariffs President Donald Trump has set in motion.

Lower-income Americans are likely to feel the brunt of the unprecedented tariffs President Donald Trump has set in motion. The cost to lower-income families is magnified because economists say essentials like food, energy and auto parts are most exposed to the import tariffs Trump has threatened to impose over the next month. In any financial shock, less affluent consumers typically have less room for error. But that’s especially true today because low-income families have been facing years of financial pressure due to a surge in the cost of living. Savings have vanished. Borrowing has spiked. “US households are already suffering from high costs. This is going to add insult to injury,” Kimberly Clausing, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told CNN in a phone interview. Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China would cost the typical household about $1,200 per year, Clausing and her colleague Mary Lovely found in a new analysis. The good news is that Trump’s planned tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been delayed for a month. But the tariffs on China went into effect Tuesday morning, and China immediately retaliated with tariffs on US energy and metals. That burden falls disproportionately on those who can least afford it: The tariffs on America’s biggest three trading partners will wipe out 2.7% of the income of the bottom 20% of earners, the Peterson Institute found.