Elected Republicans must pay the price for Trump’s economic vandalism

President Donald Trump promised to make America great again. But his sweeping and reckless imposition of tariffs is already dragging the country toward disaster. The full weight of this economic self-sabotage may not be felt for a few more weeks, as current inventories sell off and price hikes trickle down to consumers. But make no mistake: The damage has already begun, and it’s staggering.

Construction companies are among the first to feel the blow. Since Trump’s tariff plan began rolling out earlier this year, the cost of key building materials like steel and lumber has skyrocketed. That spike translates directly into higher prices for homes and infrastructure projects. The National Association of Home Builders now estimates that the average cost of constructing a new home rose by more than $9,000 and could increase further under Trump’s newest round of tariffs. That’s not a future problem — it’s happening now and it’s pricing working Americans out of the housing market.

But this economic crisis isn’t limited to beams and drywall. It’s roiling financial markets, fraying global alliances and gutting the confidence of both businesses and consumers. Most alarming near term: In just two days, the stock market shed nearly 10% of its value. For the nearly half of Americans with some form of investment in the stock market and more than one-third of American workers with retirement plans tied to market performance, that’s a brutal loss — nearly 10% of their investment in their future evaporated in just 48 hours.

Meanwhile, as many businesses watch their valuations plummet, hiring and expansion plans are being put on ice. However, the problem is vastly more serious than company valuations. American businesses are frozen in place because of the whims of a president who fundamentally doesn’t understand economics. Plans to build plants have stalled while companies sort out the consequences. Given the uncertainty, small businesses and industries that are reliant on foreign parts or materials to manufacture here in America can’t price their products.

Those businesses that export globally are stymied by retaliatory tariffs that have already been announced by China, the EU, Canada and Japan — all large U.S. trade partners. Their sales projections are suddenly in the trash. They don’t know how much product to make, how many supplies to buy, how many employees to retain. Already, layoffs have started as plants, especially some auto plants, are idled while the damage is tallied.

Major banks are now suggesting a sharp recession is the likely base case for the U.S. and the world in 2025. How deep and how wide depends on the twitches of a president wielding tariff power without legal justification.

This is a crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all plunged more than 5.5% on Friday alone, and that was despite a surprisingly strong jobs report that should have buoyed markets. But even good news couldn’t offset the growing fear that this president is steering the world’s largest economy off a cliff.

The tariffs touch nearly every corner of consumer life. From fresh groceries to gaming consoles, sneakers to smartphones, prices are rising — or soon will. Relying on foreign supply chains is a reality of modern commerce, and punishing those connections means punishing American families at the checkout line.

Perhaps most shamefully, lower-income households that are least able to absorb the blow will feel the most acute impact of long-term tariffs, because they spend a greater share of their budgets on essential goods like food, clothing and energy costs.

Trump’s tariffs need to be understood for what they are: effectively the steepest tax increases on consumers and businesses in the past 50 years.

Trump insists this is a necessary operation — a painful but ultimately healing surgery to restore American manufacturing. But that’s easy for him to say. He isn’t feeling the pain personally and doesn’t seem concerned about the lack of recovery plan.

Normally, the Fed could cushion an economic downturn by cutting interest rates. But as Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned Friday, the inflationary pressures created by these tariffs complicate that picture. Cutting rates too soon could ignite a vicious inflationary spiral. For now, the Fed is standing still, waiting for clarity that may never come as long as Trump doubles down on trade war theatrics.

Trump’s defenders claim America will emerge from this chaos stronger. But markets aren’t buying it and neither should we.

The Nasdaq is down more than 20% from its all-time high just four months ago. China is cutting off exports of rare earth materials vital to American tech and defense sectors. Japan has declared a national crisis. Europe is mobilizing retaliatory tariffs. Foreign travel to Las Vegas, especially from Canada and Mexico — our largest populations of international visitors — will plummet. And here at home, workers are watching their financial futures circle the drain, all while the president golfs at Mar-a-Lago and posts all-caps messages about getting rich.

This is not economic patriotism. It’s economic vandalism. Each day these tariffs remain in place, they do more damage to the credibility of the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of its workers and the stability of global markets.

This is Trump’s tax increase on Americans and Trump’s recession and Trump’s economic destruction. But don’t forget that the House of Representatives can stop this because Trump doesn’t actually have a legal basis for exercising this power.

The Senate has passed a bill to reassert congressional control of tariffs, as required by law. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has prevented the House from voting on such a measure through the passage of a bizarre bill that declares all of 2025 to be a single day.

The sole purpose of this bill was to prevent House GOP members from having to vote for the record on tariffs. This shocking effort to avoid responsibility and to leave the American, and in fact global, economy exposed to Trump’s madness must not be forgotten. No Republican running for office deserves the vote of any American at this juncture. They have abandoned the country.