One of President Donald Trump’s biggest weapons in his toolbox is that of tariffs.
Trump loves using tariffs as a negotiating tool to bring other countries to the table and to get better trade deals for the United States.
Democrats, however, used Trump's imposition of tariffs against the president and Republicans during the 2025 cycle, but the commander in chief may have just flipped the script on them.
In July, after months of threatening heavy tariffs, Trump announced that anyone who had not signed a trade deal with the U.S. would be hit hard with them.
At the time, Trump stated, “We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now.”
He continued, “I think the tariffs have been very well received. The stock market hit a new high today."
There was immediate concern about the Trump tariffs, but initially, many big players in the economy were absorbing the costs so as not to drive up prices for everyday Americans. That has changed considerably in recent months, and Democrats used the fact to win the 2025 cycle.
Democrats hammered “affordability” during the 2025 cycle, and it paid off.
I don’t know how many times I warned against overpromising during the 2024 campaign, but that is what Trump did. He always talked about “day one,” and he pledged that wars would be ended and that grocery prices would immediately drop, but neither happened.
Some grocery prices have come down, but not nearly enough, and Democrats used that fact against Trump in the election cycle.
Democrats pounded the “affordability” angle, and they swept all the major elections, including two key gubernatorial elections and the New York City mayoral race.
Vice President JD Vance downplayed those losses, stating, "I think it's idiotic to overreact to a couple of elections in blue states." I wholeheartedly disagree, believing we need to use this as a wake-up call and get busy with 2026 messaging right away.
One of the problems on the grocery front is that tariffs have either driven the price of staples, such as coffee, through the roof, or they have made products very hard to come by, and when you can get them, the cost is several times higher than before, with bananas being a key example (I have not been able to get them for weeks at my store).
To that point, Trump just announced deals with Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina that will now dramatically cut tariffs on these countries, which will, hopefully, be reflected at the checkout counter.
Trump stated, “Coffee, we’re going to lower some tariffs and have some coffee come in.”
When Trump started this tariff war, I preached time and again for consumers to be patient, that it would hurt for a little while, but that we should see a payoff within a year. Hopefully, our patience is paying off, and we will start to notice these prices coming down significantly in the near future.
